So, toughen up, be brave, and cry;) Boy, do I ever know about that “in public” ban. I cry at Post Office commercials, definitely at the movies, these days I cry during Broadway Musicals; “Cockeyed Optimist” from South Pacific gets me every time. When I was 16, lying in a hospital ward with a shattered leg, and surrounded by other guys, I didn’t cry until a day off of Demerol (I was approaching the addiction threshold) and then not till after lights out. One guy there, an ex football player with a knee surgery, came over to my bed to quietly check on me, he turned out to be a coach, and a lot of male coaches know tons about pain and crying.

Not possible to be “braver than you actually are”, so re-sensitize, look to your inner strength, watch some sappy sad movies and get back in training, back in touch with your tears, and don’t beat yourself up when you aren’t crying at a funeral. Notice that even “tough” pro athletes now cry in public. Our Utah Jazz center, Rudy Gobert, cried during an interview about being passed over as an All Star, he was thinking of his mom and the tears just flowed. He got ranked on social media by some players in the league, wouldn’t want to be those players the next time they see him under the basket. Tough and emotional, they can be the same guy.