I have to say that it seems a great deal of guilt is being put on women's shoulders about women having, holding and responding to ideas and feelings. I know you have said you will get to the men but I would not leave it too long.

The actual idea that a woman can have reach her own fulfillment - not some male imposed idea of what a woman should be - is pretty new territory in 'modern' society. I hope we are not going to be revisiting 'bad times' in women's herstory? I also have to caution that I will be away from this thread too if personal attacks on people and their relationship with their parents start! No-one cam know that either.

In many things women and men are as different as chalk and cheese. The similarities that we do share may actually be based on very different needs and stimuli. Once more that rather crude word - stereotyping - comes to mind. When I look at my relationships with people of both genders I can see that each one is so very different because the people are so different. When I look closer in to friends it is the diversity that each represent and present to me that makes each of them special. It can be the very things they are that are different from me that makes it all work so well. Sometimes one can over-analyse something that is good and still get no answers. Is it not best, then, to just simply enjoy it and be blessed by what you have?

For this reason I find one piece of prose so very helpful as a general philosophy for life: The Desiderata


mp