57 Varieties of Self-pity

SELF-PITY SOUNDS like an unmanly defect, yet statistics show that men commit suicide ten times as often as women, and surely self-pity is well represented in that figure. Most men are quick to admit anger, rage, and resentment (sometimes seeming to equate them with some kind of backhanded virtue), and I have spent many hours listening to stories about fights, altercations, and brutal beatings. Though I am not unfamiliar with these emotions, I know I drank to drown my sorrow. In the fight for life, self-pity almost buried me.