Men Cry In Private
Published April 23, 2021 · 6:58 · 238,904 views
About This Video
Chris Hedges said you can't understand America unless you read James Baldwin. Van read the book. What stands out: Baldwin was in Martin Luther King's funeral procession in Atlanta, April 9, 1968, and looking out the windows at throngs of poor people dressed in their very best Sunday clothes. Starched shirts, pressed suits, hats and dresses.
Two types of stories reduce Van to tears. Civil rights stories and gratitude stories. They met on the streets of Georgia that day. The video pivots from Baldwin to Van's own gratitude catalog: a Super 8 projector (a gift), a camera bag (a gift), a washer dryer (a gift), the kidney that keeps his best friend alive, the young woman's heart that beats in his friend's chest. He thanks his brother Casey for making the video that drove the Kickstarter's success. He'd been borrowing money to pay the mortgage for four months. Men cry in private, he says. Which is not to say men don't cry in public sometimes.
Transcript
chris hedges said that you can't understand america unless you read james baldwin
so i read this book and it's a difficult read and he's
clearly a genius baldwin um but if you were to ask me
what do you remember about this book what stands out it would be
baldwin was in martin luther king's funeral procession and
he said that looking out the windows as he was driving through atlanta
there were throngs of people and they were dressed in their very best sunday clothes
and they were poor people two types of stories reduce this spirited man to a crybaby the first type is stories about the civil rights movement and what those brave people did for us what they went through for us but this
episode isn't about the civil rights movement or baldwin or dr king this episode is about the second
kind of story that reduces this spirited man to tears stories about gratitude
those two types of stories gratitude stories and civil rights stories just happened to meet
on the streets of georgia on april 9 1968 and when he thinks about those fine
people in their starched shirts pressed suits ties done-up hair
hats and dresses when he thinks about the effort and the grace and the gratitude
well he falls to pieces this super 8 projector was a gift this
camera bag was a gift this camera was a gift this tape dispenser was a gift this balaclava
was a gift this washer dryer was a gift this tree removal
was a gift so so it's easy to thank people for the material phenomena which ease this spirited man's life but it's impossible to express the
gratitude he feels for certain things like the kidney that keeps his best
friend alive or the young woman's heart that beats in his chest or the doctors and nurses who put them
there there's no way to properly thank some of these people but never mind proper a thank you note
is a thank you note and a thank you note works just fine when this spirited man considers some of
the millions and millions of symbiotic miracles that kept us fed and supplied
during lockdown and the symbiotic miracles that brought us vaccines
in less than a year why the tears return and he feels
compelled to thank at least some of them to show his gratitude for at least some of these miracles
that kept us going every day [Music] uh [Music] i also must say thank you to all of you who subscribed and supported
my kickstarter campaign and bought sweatshirts before all of this during the year
i put this together it was the covid crisis and for the last four months i've been broke
borrowing money to pay the mortgage which is borrowed money
and now it looks like for a while i'll be able to make this channel work and i'd especially like to thank my
brother casey neistat for making his beautiful movie which drove the success of this whole
thing and i won't forget you staying strong at nana's funeral delivering the perfect eulogy men cry in private which is not to say men don't cry in public sometimes you
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Kickstarter mentions — referenced as platform for channel funding
People Referenced
Chris Hedges, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Casey Neistat, Alanis Morissette