Women (Suspension points .........................)

Author: Padre Alejandro Cortés González-Báez  

 

 

Please note: The following is a simple newspaper column, not a scientific study. It consequently lacks the somberness of a doctoral thesis, lacking a foundation based on laboratory results or rigorous analysis. May I continue?

We all know that women think, feel, act, remember, react, work, rest, bond, present themselves - and all the rest - in ways quite different from men.
Women are not a different species from men, but a different form of being within the same human species. All of us are equal in dignity, rights and obligations. Whoever thinks that a woman's qualities and her defects are exclusive to her gender commits an unsustainable error and a grave injustice. But it would also be a mistake to think that equality means indistinguishability.
Feminine behavior and composure is influenced as much by external as by the internal factors. In addition - even if we men cannot appreciate it - many thoughts bounce around inside the heads of women: past experiences, future possibilities, suppositions, premonitions, which "objectively" may or may not exist but are ALWAYS PRESENT IN THEIR MINDS AND IN THEIR HEARTS.
One of the principal obstacles to matrimonial harmony is the lack of patience. Let's look carefully at some examples of this deficiency. Maintaining a household cannot be
programmed like any other business activity. There is no such thing as a time-clock, punching in and out, no fixed working hours, no specific line function. The responsibility for the home enterprise falls squarely and totally on 'the lady of the house." Try and juggle these with the rest and sleep, which every human requires to gather strength. Never mind those additional stressful times of pregnancy and caring for infant and young children.
The mental stress of leaving your children in the hands of others is no small matter either. And for many women, the maternal extinct forces them to worry about many others around them, taking on themselves the problems of others. This is very hard to eradicate.
Then the husband arrives at home, to rest after his own very stressful day at work, solving all sorts of "occupational" problems. His mindset is not prepared to deal with "her" problems. Is it any wonder that the woman now feels used, abused and under appreciated? How can you expect patience and understanding from this tired soul?
Let's not forget those suffering from physical handicaps or beset by mental distractions, the indifference, the mocking, the snubs, the neglect of her husband and, in some cases, of his own or her own family.
How can we expect self-control from someone who feels herself, or knows herself, to be all alone? How can we expect order and tranquility when the husband ignores the person who has given herself to him in body and soul?
One wonders how many problems could be solved by just lending a sympathetic ear, a loving ear.