The Gender Venture

Women are beautiful, wonderful, and fair creatures that man is not worthy to walk with in this dreary life that they so warmly color with the slightest smile. I feel I must put this disclaimer, or rather, confession, of my true feelings about women at the fore of what will follow. While women do dazzle us (yes, even the Brothers Yankey find their charms bewitching), they have a side to them that produces the greatest consternation in man. Perhaps, it is not a side of them, but a whole part of us men that produces the mystery. We lack a certain understanding of their basic elements. One may see from my very masculine language about them being made up of elements that I do not know them thoroughly. The Brothers Yankey are not the only ones who feel, at times, a slight frustration with the enigma of woman, be it that the fault (if there is any fault to be found) is found in man or woman. Amongst our confused company are the greatest and least of men. I shall quote a few that I have stumbled upon.

"Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery go, and quickly too." - Hamlet to Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Ichabod Crane, "would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was- woman." - From Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune." - Speaking of Roger Chillingworth's failure to secure the heart of Hester Pryne in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Women are indeed wonderful. At times they are downright fantastic, and that is why every great epic piece of literature involves a woman or many women. Man's achievements are not fulfilled until a woman gives him her arm. I believe that any real gentleman would much rather pass a fleeting hour in polite conversation with a lady than spend an afternoon whitewater rafting or out on some other escapade. For in women is found an adventure that goes beyond the tangible reality of raft and oar, or of football and grass. Women excite a part of our mind and spirit that cannot be gotten to by any other means. That polite conversation is a great mission for the gentleman. He tries his best to make the lady laugh at all the right times, but not too much. He makes sure to communicate to her that her beauty is unique. He comforts her with his words and does his best to ensure her safety. He guards her purity and steers away from rude or coarse jokes. All this happens between a lady and a gentleman during the course of a conversation. This is amplified ten thousand times in the scene of marriage. Indeed, women are an adventure, a quest, an odyssey for men. That is not to say that they are to be conquered and shown off as spoils of victory. Nothing could be further from the correct manner of things. Knowing a woman is a prize unto itself. Real intimacy with a woman is a God-given desire. That is what it means to have an adventure, to traverse the inner workings of the other while maintaining the distinctiveness that God grants to each gender.

Confusing or wearisome as they may be at times, women are a gift from the Father.

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