Searching for a Screwdriver

The following story by professor and author A. J. Swoboda is a vivid example of how shame works in our lives, often causing us to hide and run away from the pain and embarrassment:

One of the greatest embarrassments I’ve faced as I’ve entered midlife is a lingering shame that I don’t know how to do the things I’m “supposed to know how to do” as a man (build things, mostly). The life of the mind has often served as a fig leaf under which I’ve covered the shame I’ve had around my masculinity for most of my life. I’m the thinker; my wife is the builder. We’ve made it work, as…