What makes a person good marriage material today? Is it money, power? When you get down to the nitty gritty of everyday married life, like cooking, sewing and hanging shelves, then you really discover to whom you’re married.
I believe in a pre-nuptial questionnaire. Question number one should be: Did you take home economics or shop class in high school? The answer should be the real reason for getting married. Sure, it’s love you say. Don’t kid yourself.
Think of the male who never learned how to cook or sew or the female who stares blankly at a pile of wood, envisioning that wood hanging on her wall as perfectly aligned shelves that dutifully hold and display her vast collection of books.
When I was in high school, girls weren’t allowed to take shop and boys weren’t allowed to take home economics, simply because of gender. I never understood this. I desperately wanted to take shop and learn how to do what the boys were being taught. Ah, how independently blissful to be able to deftly cut, measure and hang that wood or to design a palace for the birds.
When I moved into my first apartment, I had to find a man who would hang my shelves for me, and it was usually some woman’s husband. I learned quickly that wives don’t want to loan their husbands for another woman’s menial tasks. I’d hear the wife mutter, “Hey, marry your own shelf hanger B—-. I’m married to this one. Why should you get free shelves? What did YOU do for it?”
I have always been resentful of this educational gender inequity, but the wives were right, find my own shelf hanger. I learned to wheel and deal, always cognizant of the wives’ tale: What did you do for it? It’s a common fact that men like to eat a lot and they often tear their clothes. I’m a great cook and I’m pretty handy with a needle and thread (yeah, I received an “A” in home-ec in spite of myself) so I cooked a lot of home cooked meals and sewed a lot of torn jackets and in return, got the shelves hung and married the man of my dreams.
After I got married, I better understood a wife’s need to protect her sovereignty. However, it’s wonderful that high schools today offer co-ed shop and home economics (now termed healthful living) classes. Single life reaps the rewards of independent proficiency and marriages remain strong. The wife can simple say, “Honey, I’ll put up the shelves while you cook dinner,” and the husband can reply, “Okay honey, then I’ll hem that dress of yours while you fix the car.”
(c) Linda Stone Cohen All Rights Reserved
Remember that no amount of money can purchase grace, wisdom and humility. Until tomorrow…
stepoutoftheboxdotcom 