Better to Cry Now Themes and Threads: Living Authentically Through Art and Self-Discovery

In reflecting on the journey behind Better to Cry Now, Geoffrey Newman explores how courage, self-acceptance, and creativity intertwine to shape a life of purpose and truth.

A principle theme in Better to Cry Now is self acceptance, learning to believe in and follow ones' instincts. Discovering self-confidence and finding the courage to live ones' own journey rather then follow pathways determined by others is a strong theme of Better to Cry Now. Overcoming the chains and constraints coming from feeding into stereotypes established by others is a secondary theme.

Finding and shaping one's own pathway, unique and different as it might be, demands courage, tenacity, and focus. Overcoming the many stumbling blocks put in the path from the many external, as well as, internal pressures is also a primary lesson illustrated in Better to Cry Now. And of course love, learning how to love one's self is critcal in order to truly love others, overcoming the fear of failure, controlling anger and resentment are also major themes in Better to Cry Now.

The structure of Better to Cry Now is that of using a play format. My life, as I analyze it today, seems to follow an Elizabethan theme, "All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts..." This is the structure of my life, a one man show you might say. I have played many different roles, parts, in many different settings.

Better to Cry Now attempts to share those many unique positions, roles, or "parts" with the reader. The one dramatic action throughout has been the constant effort to define my purpose, select the right path that suits my needs, dreams, ideals and build a life of my own choosing. In that way, I become the author of my own life, that of "shaping the flow of a gay Black man."

As I reach closer and closer to the final chapter or scene of my story, my unique journey, I am reminded that each day I can live a life of my own choosing, my own contstruction, a play, you might say, with its many twists and turns, characters and antagonists. I see my journey as a theatrical expression of choices I continue to make in creating an entertaining and meaningful theatrical experience that is my inprint, my book of Geoffrey.