Completely random thinking...

While I was out this afternoon I started thinking about the women in my life and the differences between the way they see the world and the way the men I know see things.  It isn't a secret that there are differences between the sexes though I have no doubt that different doesn't mean better in any way. It is just different.

This was prompted by thinking about my friend who is having a birthday party in a far and distant land.  I didn't go to the celebration even though she is a close friend and I would have liked to go.  The main reason was that my beloved other half couldn't take time off work and travel across  Europe for a three day party.  I understand this and harbour no secret resentments over this.  It is a fact and as a schoolteacher he can't just drop everything and go. C'est la vie.

I know that the women I count as friends think it's fine for me to go and leave my husband behind to carry on working while I sun myself in foreign climes or party the night away.  I don't think any of us would feel the same if it meant our male partners went off partying while we stayed behind to work.  Why is this?

I think it is a generational thing.  Traditionally men worked while women did whatever it was that women did all day.  When I was a child in the 1950's my dad worked in the hot and steamy city all week and the women took the children to the countryside, only seeing their husbands at weekends.  It was a normal state of affairs and I still think, womens liberation and modern day progress aside, there is still a bit of a carry over of that attitude.  Certainly I feel easy about going away for weeks at a time to see family overseas, but if Ralph were to announce his intention to do the same, I would be distressed and feel hard done by.  I guess he feels the same and I'm usually pretty callous, not to mention selfish, when I make decisions to go places without him.

So instead we are both at home this weekend and we spent this afternoon in the West End of London.  Earlier this week there was the announcement of the UK government spending review.  It was disastrous, far-reaching and can only lead to even greater hardship for thoise already in need.  You would never have known this from the crowds out shopping today.  It seemed that every other storefront was a cafe, a restaurant or coffee  bar.  All of them were heaving and we queued for a table at lunch.  How fortunate we are and how oblivious we are to that good fortune.  I can go and spend over £2 for a coffee and not even think about it.  So much of the world has so little in comparison.

The Apple Computer store was mobbed and immediately after having the thought that I was lucky to have so much in a world where so many have so little, I I felt completely deprived by not being able to afford the new Apple Mac mini computer.  It was truly a thing of beauty and all I could think of was 'I want this'.... how sad is that?  I don't need it at all, but how skillfully I was manipulated by sleek design and marketing to lust after this new object. This is fairly embarrassing, but another reality that I was aware of today.

The world is so cock-eyed.