October 23, 2008. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. Women 2.

It is a good question? What do women want? I read a recent pole asking women if they are happy, and the answer was astonishing to me. The answer was no. Now I have lived through many changes in the life style of women since the days when my Mother would state that "This is a man's world". My first year of teaching included a different pay schedule for the married men from the women. The moment a woman was pregnant, the teacher was required to resign. Many positions were closed to women entirely. I observed early in my teaching life that for a woman to be promoted to leadership and administration, the woman had to be clearly superior, as the men just got promoted to become a vice-principal. So the world has changed dramatically over the over fifty years. But still the women are not happy.

But some women are very happy. These are women who have a whole life of their own, along with their families. Many young women of today have realized that raising children is a noble activity, and that after the children attend school, employment opportunities are available for the Mother of school aged children. Fortunately, except for a few years, a woman is not totally at the mercy of the husband's purse and this is a good thing. My Father, while he was a Salvation Army Officer saw so many women with no ability to produce money, so were at the mercy of the ill or alcoholic husband. His own Mother was in that situation, so he drilled into the heads of his daughters that we must be able to provide for ourselves at any time. He was much ahead of his time in many ways. Today, whether single or married, a woman can make money.

Now how you look is mostly how you think you look. I have never been beautiful, but I have always treated myself as is I
looked fine, even though I probably did not. Remember that my parents were not wealthy and my clothes were probably not elegant, but I never paid any attention to how I looked. I just pretended that I was fine and every one seemed to follow my lead. My friend Sharyn told me a great story. She was required to attend a party with her husband. She did not want to go. In the past the parties, held annually for the staff, have been deadly dull. In the car on the way to the event she gave herself a talk. She said to herself "Sharyn, you are going to have a good time. You are going to be lively and engaging". On the way into the party she picked up a yellow blossom and put it behind her ear. Her husband commented that the yellow blossom behind her ear made her look beautiful. Now armed with these two facts, she acted as if she looked beautiful and she talked to lots of different people, who all were enjoying the party. Much later in the party, while she still thinks she looks beautiful and acts that way, she went to the rest room, to discover that the blossom had wilted and looked awful. She decided to scrap the blossom and continue to pretend that she looked beautiful. The moral of the story is obvious, as I figured out so many years ago. Beauty is within, not in the exterior shell.