- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…but first…
(Welcome to MY World)
you should know that I’m an atheist and don’t believe this for a minute. I’m pretty sure that GE (General Electric) did all of this, hence their ad tagline, “We Bring Good Things to Life”. I know…everything starts somewhere, somehow…so…
Welcome and come in as I turn on the- GE (not GD)- lights for the first time to this blog.
We all love harmony and like-mindedness. Then…BIG BANG…confusion and mayhem. A couple of words that describe the relationships that often exist between women and men. We like to think that we’re the same and equal and all of the enlightened things that we say about the genders. Of course there are many similarities between us…BUT, in addition to the differing appearances of our “naughty bits”, there are some very real differences, and I think it’s important we acknowledge and at least TRY to understand this.
We work and play and love and hate- then love and hate some more, creating great make-up sex– around each other thinking that we know how the other side ticks, but we have different brains, and different hormones. This means we sit and look at the same gorgeous sunset at the end of a glorious day- but as a man I see a different horizon out there than you do as a woman, and I don’t think it’s just the sunglasses I’m wearing! The input is always the same but the interpretation changes.
(Do our hormonal sunglasses make us see differently?)
I play and work around women a LOT. When I go to Spin Bike Class in the early morning, there are about a dozen women and maybe one, rarely two, other men present. When I go to my job (medical laboratory) afterwards, the great majority of my co-workers are women. Drop into Yoga class in the evening (men of MY age need to stretch to keep the injuries from running in check!)?…most often I’m the only guy. It’s provides an unusual perspective for the typical testosterone-laden lad…but it’s a milieu I choose and enjoy!
It’s this perspective that I want to check out and comment on in this blog. Am I hearing and seeing the REALITY of a woman’s world just because I’m immersed, or do my foggy Male-Goggles just make me think I have a clue? Can I live and love with great abandon and passion while preserving the integrity of my testosterone? You tell me!
Do I have lots of answers to the puzzle, the conundrum?…of course I do…NOT! Just observations and reflections and if I’m really lucky, maybe the occasional insight that comes from my God-given (sorry, atheism precludes me saying that) faculties. Will ALL of my blog entries concern interactions and interconnections between male and female? …NOPE!! I’m a touch ADHD and so I sometimes ramble in other directions when something totally insignificant and meaningless strikes my fancy. I frustrate those around me so why shouldn’t I go big(ger) and frustrate YOU on a whole new level?
(That’s my ADHD-addled brain on the right side!)
I generally get my best thoughts by stealing others, so if you have ideas and insights to share, please jump in and make comments. I’ll welcome them wholeheartedly. I pay handsomely in praise and thanks and absolutely NO dollars or any other currency.
Jul 08, 2012 @ 20:58:38
Larry, this sounds strangely like that old question “why am I here?” which I once pursued into depression!! My saving conclusion (After the obvious-procreating) was to have fun…….shallow….yes but uplifting on most days. The difference between men and women is just that! …..accept and enjoy or not. Is there really an answer? that can cover the whole gamut (of our small section of humankind)?
But fun, my old friend, to hear your views.
Rolande (from my female perspective.)
ps. I am sure Angus will have a comment or two also.
Jul 09, 2012 @ 08:58:36
I like that you made the DECISION to accept and enjoy…having fun (and maybe some GIN!) is much better than having frustration! Thanks for your great comment Rolande…
Jul 15, 2012 @ 12:38:32
From your buddy Angus
I’m so impressed with the quality of your writing Larry. I do believe you missed your calling. Where have you been all these years? Although it’s never too late You definitely should have been an investigative journalist with editorials in all our major newsmagazines.
I have been thinking about your subject matter. Have you sought out the most controversial timely issue you could think of to get notoriety or are you genuinely interested in the source of human being’s sexual behavior. I totally agree with your reflections but find the subject rather Ho Hum, however since you have brought up the subject let me tell you about my formative years.
I think I have told you when we moved to Duncan in 1956 the Cowichan Valley had a low population of people of European extraction. I have read there were 4,800 first nations people 1500 Europeans, 1000 Chinese and about the same number of East Indian people who lived in Pauldi.
My mother worked full time as a nurse to feed her three boys and didn’t have much time so we mostly ran wild. I remember spending my summers at the river when I was 8, 9 and 10 years old. The First Nations peoples had just gotten political franchise allowing them to vote and also the right to drink alcohol. All the young First Nations peoples moved into the pub at the Tzuhalem Hotel leaving the elders at home to look after the little ones. As far as I can tell they never noticed I was white. If they did they didn’t mention it. When it rained I hung around in their homes with the other kids. I can remember the old granny saying, “I’m goen to town to git you kidsch shum pop and chips” and sure enough she would return in the new Dodge Desoto (they started leasing out their property and had money to buy cars} her arms filled with shopping bags filled with pop and chips. When we fought, which we did a lot, the old grandpas would sit us down and tell us some legend or other most of what I couldn’t understand because he used some Coast Silash words. I became quite attached to these people and spent a lot of time listening to the gentle old elders tell stories while they carved canoes and totem poles. Yah sure their housed smelled of dog and old urine but it didn’t bother me.
In the winter I spent a lot of time in China Town and can remember the toothy smiles of the old Chinese men when they saw us kids. If we could get seven cents together they would serve my buddy Sunny and I a giant plate of chow main while their old friends came around to talk to us. We worked in Willy Chow Brothers to make a few cents of pocket money. Halloween was too much fun with all the fireworks for sale. Yah I know several of our friends lost their thumbs and fingers in the explosions.
I also hung around the white peoples houses but often found them sterile and forbidding. I felt uncomfortable when they talked about the rotten chinks and how stupid the Indians were. I gravitated to the poorer white households where there was a kinship with the other races in the valley.
I must say I was naïve or didn’t care much about sexuality. In those days I don’t think anyone knew about Gays or women troubles. It was all hush hush. I went through puberty just like everyone else getting all my knowledge from my schoolyard chums. Of course, for the young guys there were all manner of experimentations including what we called corn holing. One night at a party I was approached by a gay guy who wanted me to go down stairs with him for some corn holing. I declined but one of the other guys at the party took offence and beat the shit out of the poor sot. A week later a lawyer phoned me and asked if I would testify. I declined but I guess I was collaborative evidence giving the assailant the right to beat on gay guys. Was it illegal to be gay in the late sixties?
I met many fine gay people at my place of work. I like gay people because they took an interest. I was often hit on but can’t remember being offended. If anything I felt it was a compliment. I felt very comfortable amongst gay people just as I felt comfortable amongst the First Nations and Chinese people.
Now to lead you away from the boring subject of sexuality lets talk about the changes that have happened in our lifetime. In my opinion the role of men has taken a 180 degree turn. I think it was because a generation or two before we were born there were some very courageous women who demanded political franchise in the suffragette movement. They chained themselves to the doors of parliament and starved themselves in prison struggling for the right to vote for a representative. I have even read stories of the jailors knocking the front teeth out of the women so they could stuff a tube down their throats to force feed them. Yes they achieved their goal and got the right to vote. This was a significant achievement which has slowly eroded our patriarchal society, in my opinion for the better. In my lifetime I have witnessed our society’s slow acceptance of homosexuality, I have seen the level of violence against women decline and I have seen the overall standard of living improve. Without the suffragette movement I believe we would all be living a subsistence existence in row houses and mining coal to keep the homes of wealthy warm while our young men go off to war to protect the dominion of the aristocracy. I’ve just finished reading The Hunger Games.
I’m hoping this increasing tolerance will lead to the acceptance of sex-trade workers making them highly trained professionals. From the perspective of a young man in puberty I would have loved to live in ancient Polynesia where ladies in their 40ies would give the young men sexual release and train them in the art of love making. When sailing through the Polynesian islands I discovered the most amazing thing. Families with many sons would train one of the sons to be a woman. Some would become gay (she shes) others would become (he shes). The latter would often marry and have children. He shes and she shes in Polynesia are in my opinion absolutely beautiful, usually tall, lank, long flowing hair and narrow waists. They are very sexy.
Wouldn’t it have been great if a sex-trade worker came to our schools and educated us on the fine art of love making and took away all the ignorance and taboos we all suffered through. Are you embarrassed Larry when you think of how clumsy and insensitive you were in your first sexual encounters? I blush when I think of my first encounter and I was with a farm girl who had watched the farm animals doing it.
Will we ever get to the point when women will understand a man’s need for sexual release and will except and honor the oldest profession in the world? If things go as they have our descendants will have a better life in a more tolerant world if we can accept who we are.
Jul 15, 2012 @ 17:08:22
I probably learned a whole lot more about you in five minutes here than I would in a year sitting next to you my friend. Thanks for sharing that great story and your experiences Angus. I would be REALLY curious to hear what women think of your points in the last 2 or 3 paragraphs (me clumsy?!…me insensitive?!)… super grist for the mill, so to speak. You’ve provided me with wonderful new blog ideas…I’ll TRY not to steal before I check back with you, but I did give fair warning in my closing paragraph above!! Thanks a lot Angus…