There exists a last straw for each man
Like camels, men are not expected to complain.
Straw. Something so small. Seemingly harmless. Virtually weightless, it can be carried by the lightest wind.
Compare one little piece of straw to a camel’s back, which, in that famous adage, it is said to break.
A camel’s back carries enormous amounts of luggage for long distances. For perspective’s sake, a camel can carry approximately 450 kilos. A straw is roughly 50 grams. A camel tips the scales at between half a ton and one ton.
Men are like camels. They carry their immediate and extended families’ loads. They carry theirs and other people’s dreams, aspirations and other assorted luggage on their backs. They may even be forced to carry dead weight.
They walk for long distances, sometimes physically. Other times, they take these long walks in their minds, navigating treacherous desert terrain, silently battling mental health issues and heat stroke, as they search for an oasis to quench their killer thirst.
Like camels, men are not expected to complain. Even when their sore and tired feet are trembling from the colossal weight on their backs, and they fall forwards on their faces in sand dunes, they are expected to pick themselves up and get on with the task at hand.
Multiple flights
But sometimes, just like a camel, there is that one little straw that breaks a man’s back. There is that one apparently inconsequential issue that sends a man to spiral out of control.
Here’s a good example. You see them daily in many estates—men pulling handcarts with tens of 20-litre water jerrycans for long distances. At times, these water vendors carry the jerrycans multiple flights of stairs to clients’ houses.
As fate may have it, a five-litre jerrycan of water, which the water vendor went to buy at the purified water point may break his back. It will not add up to casual observers because of the nature of this man’s work compared to this small weight that even a child can carry. A straw can kill a man.
For other men, the last straw is a decision by their spouse to spend money on an item that was not in the budget. It is not really about the money or that the man is a penny-pinching miser. It is just that the numbers have not been adding up for him, as he tries to scrimp and save so that his family can have a roof above their heads.
Financial weight
A girl will be wondering at her man, like: “You usually give me 4,500 bob to make my hair; what’s all the fuss with 50 bob?”
Girl, I will have you know that it’s not the 50 bob, but the accumulation of financial weight – straight and nonstop 50 bobs, if you may – on his back that has caused that man to lose his last doggone nerve.
The thing is, nobody asks a camel if they can put loads on its back. We just take it as given that a camel equals carrying luggage for long distances. Same applies to men. Society has been conditioned to believe that a man is able to do back-breaking and bank-breaking exploits without complaining.
When a man’s back breaks or suffers a meltdown, people who do not know what really happened will quickly label such men as weak. They forget the hundreds of treks that this man has made and the personal sacrifices he has made as he carried the weight of the world on his hump.
Every man has a last straw that breaks their back. At times, this last straw will send them to an early grave. Other times, the last straw will break their marriage, or their will to live, or love.
