What're You Feeling?

Every so often when I’m chatting to slvrsluger, he’ll ask me what I’ve been thinking about recently. It’s a question I usually welcome, as it precedes many interesting conversations - I frequently have indeed had something on my mind recently, but it’s not always easy to steer a conversation towards a certain topic, especially if it has been a personal matter to me. Between men, we don’t talk about our feelings you know, so this particular line of questioning can be a little disarming, undoubtedly a good thing in this scenario.

It was recently suggested to me that the question ‘what are you feeling?’ could be a meaningful upgrade on the ‘what are you thinking?’ question, and I am inclined to agree. It serves a similar purpose, to surprise the questionee into displaying some vulnerability, but it is far more effective, and gives a lot less room to manouevre around the machismo-stoic response of ‘nothing’. Us men have a remarkable capacity to think nothing, but (at least in my experience) a greatly diminished ability to feel nothing.

Perhaps it’s going to be my new go-to. I feel… sleeeeeepy. But happy. What’re you feeling?