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Blend
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2018/11 - November
My friend Blanche, the eldest of nine children, has a unique perspective on life. Eight brothers and sisters will either kill you or turn you into a philosopher…or a great mental health counselor, which she is.
Out of the blue, she’ll hurl a nugget of wisdom my direction. Her words will spin through the air, orbit my brain a couple of times, then settle in for a good think. This particular think was inspired by an encounter with her husband.
She and hubby Bruce were in the middle of a house remodel. When they were wall-painting she told Bruce to blend the edge of one wall to the other.
He hadn’t a clue what to do. It’s like she suddenly threw an ancient Mesopotamian riddle at him.
“Blend,” she insisted.
He stared blankly.
“Soften the brush strokes, make the edges look like they are melding together,” she instructed.
Bruce is super smart, but even though he carefully dabbed and smeared, the desired results eluded him. “Blend” was not in his vocabulary.
Blanche wondered why blending seemed so foreign to him, so we put “blend” on the gender scale. It weighed in feminine. As little girls, we learn how to blend make-up. We blend ingredients in cooking. We throw food in the blender. We blend into our groups: clubs, classrooms, congregations. We work at being part of the crowd, non-threatening to our friends. Families blend largely due to the effort of mothers. As far as women have come in achieving equality, many of us still find the backseat, that is, blending in with our peers, more comfortable than being front-and-center.
Men, on the other hand, are taught to stand out. Make yourself seen. Be the man. Run the ball. Go for the gold. Be a leader. Set yourself apart. Kill the mammoth.
Whoa. Wait a minute. Is that it? Are our cavemen/cavewomen brains still dictating behavior? Those primitive brains kick in for fight or flight, so why wouldn’t they sneak into other arenas?
If you want to know more about this fascinating gender collision, go to YouTube and search for “A Tale of Two Brains – Men’s Brain Women’s Brain” by Mark Gungor, for a great laugh and even greater insight.
Happy blending.
