March 22, 2010 – I recently found out that rocks also cry, and I’m not talking about the crying rock of Kakamega…!

We all know that lasses are an open bunch. They are always willing to share their feelings freely with whomever will give them an audience and they seek comfort from people they consider themselves close to.

So it is not rare to find a chic drying her tear-glands over a break-up, a fight with her beau, blah blah blah… But something unusual happened just over a week ago that left me dazed.

One morning, after a disturbingly long, loud night of listening to my neighbour play Tracy Chapman’s “Matters of the Heart” over and over again the whole night, I knew it was time for “Maureen to the rescue”.

You would probably wonder why I would bother myself with other people’s lives… Well; this is my male neighbour I am talking about. My neighbour James, is popularly known as either “James – the eye candy”, or “neighbourhood macho man”.

So Tracy Chapman on repeat was a little worrying. As surely as the ear muffs did little to block out the loud crooning, I set off to his abode the next morning.

To my surprise I was very welcomed. His blood shot eyes did catch me by surprise though and so did his sagging eye bags.

He did force a weary smile but I couldn’t wait to find out what had made him disturb the ‘neighbourhood’ peace the whole night.

I’m not really James’ BFF so it took me by surprise when – all of a sudden – he started pouring his heart out to me while struggling to keep it together.

Apparently, he had caught his girlfriend of “forever” with her hands in another cookie jar on the day he had planned to propose. He explained how the whole thing was killing him since this is a girl he could have gone through blistering winds and scorching deserts for.

This whole situation got me thinking… a lot! As much as I couldn’t help but feel for poor James I struggled to suppress a smile.

I always knew that guys expressed themselves differently but I never imagined that tears were involved. I have only ever known of the binge drinking, strong appearances and no signs of hurting. They don’t lose weight, they don’t lose sleep, they always seem fine to me even after huge break-ups.

Never would you find a guy admit to what James had just admitted to me (he gets two thumbs up from me for valour). He admitted to needing a shoulder to cry on and since this was a whole new discovery for me I was only willing to help.

Yes, underneath those tough exteriors, underneath that macho man’s shirt…there’s a heart that hurts.