_short post_ ".. I just need some time to lick my wounds"

Was reading in the book "Wild at Heart" (that's the guys one, by John Eldredge) that there's a wound that guys get and never want to address. I wanted you to read this part.

Contempt for the Wound
"Men are taught over and over when they are boys that a wound that hurts is shameful," notes Bly. "A wound that stops a man from continuing to play is a girlish wound. He who is truly a man keeps walking, dragging his guts behind." Like a man who's broken his leg in a marathon, he finishes the race even if he has to crawl and he doesn't say a word about it. That sort of misunderstanding is why for most of us, our wound is an immense source of shame. A man's not supposed to get hurt; he's certainly not supposed to let it really matter. We've seen too many movies where the good guy takes an arrow, just breaks it off, and keeps on fighting; or maybe he gets shot but is still able to leap across a canyon and get the bad guys. And so most men minimize their wound. "It's not a big deal. Lot's of people get hurt when they're young. I'm okay." Kind David (a guy who's hardly a pushover) doesn't act like that at all. "I am poor and needy," he confesses openly, "and my heart is wounded within me" (Ps. 109:22).
Or perhaps they'll admit it happened, but deny it was a wound because they deserve it. After many months of counseling together... I asked Dave a simple question: "What would it take to convince you that you are a man?" "Nothing," he said. "Nothing can convince me." We sat in silence as tears ran down my cheeks. "You've embraced the wound, haven't you, Dave? You've owned it's message as final. You think your father was right about you." "Yes," he said, without any sign of emotion at all. I went home and wept - for Dave, and for so many other men I know and for myself because I realized that I, too, had embraced my wound and ever since just tried to get on with life. Suck it up, as the saying goes. The only thing more tragic than the tragedy that happens to us is the way we handle it.

He goes on to say we build a 'false self' and live within that world instead of addressing our wounds. Some of the excuses were things like, "People like me now.. they wouldn't like who I really am."

Like he said, the tragedy isn't as tragic as how we deal with it. The way we cover up and hide from our pasts is damaging. The only way to heal from these wounds is to open up to the fact that they exist. And just like a physical wound, it will take time to heal. And just like a broken leg that needs to be re-broken because it set wrong, it will hurt to bring it up again.

So I leave you with this: What are the wounds you have left hidden under a guise? How long will you wait to deal with them, and start the healing process?