Well! I've been educated about men! By one of my dearest friends, Brother David Grant Stewart, Sr. and does he have a way of putting things! I do hope the lesson is not lost inside my female pea sized brain. I don't want it to be lost I want to absorb the message via his analogy and put it into some sort of practice on my end. First, he reminds me that the love of my life does not lie, nor does he exaggerate. These two things I already knew and are two of the reason I fell in love with him in the first place. He is unpretentious, funny and just the biggest huggie-bear in the world, at least this is what my vision of him is, a great big wonderful happy huggie-bear.

Brother Stewart wrote: "Win does not lie. Nor does he exaggerate. If he says he is in love with you, he is. If you want him, you are going to have to learn to bend as much as necessary. We all have to learn to be flexible to make a friendship or a marriage work. There are times when you have to cut a guy some slack. There are times when you need to leave a guy alone, no matter how much you may think you need him. People are like atoms. In fact, the very word "atom" means "individual" - something that has independent existence and cannot be further divided without losing its basic attributes, its identity. In an atom, there are mild electromagnetic forces in the outer electron shell. These give the atom its chemical properties. When we penetrate these and approach the nucleus, we encounter the strongest repulsive forced that exist in nature. People are like this. Keeping an appropriate distance, they can have pleasant relationships as good friends and companions. But getting to close will always bring out forces which are to strong to be dealt with and must simply be avoided at all costs, or the relationship will be destroyed." end of quote.

He wrote more where he got carried away about woman's lib but I don't need to go there for this purpose as I already know most of the sixties and seventies were spent tearing down any head way women had made to that point. I mean I don't want to wear a man's suit although getting equal pay is nice, but I prefer wearing a skirt while earning that equal pay. I have worked (and work all the time, actually) since I was fifteen and a-half years of age. With the exception of when I was a stay at home Mom, but that never lasted very long. I was always contributing one way or another to the family money pot. And, then when I got divorced I was the breadwinner, entered into the Manly World of commerce and forged ahead, trail blazing my way ... in other words, there was no hands outs, no free medical, no free food, nothing but through my own efforts for myself and my children to get by on. I guess I got use to being the man around the house. Even when I remarried Keith I had to continue to be the man although, very frankly I resented have to do it and lost a lot of respect for my better-half in the process. But, that's another story that doesn't need told or relived through the efforts of retelling.

So, what do I do? What is the next chapter in the love saga of the century? Will I be a Willow or an Oak....I want to learn to be a Willow, sweeping, lovely, bending Willow. I do!