They've Already Told This RICIMER Tale

The histories have already SPOKEN, the story-tellers have already HAD their say, the documentaries have already been DONE, and the movie-makers have ALREADY addressed the issue. The verdict is in.

All I'm doing is presenting a different point of view (and a fictional one at that), not arguing with the experts.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, in their right mind, in any of those industries is going to want to touch this story's point of view with a ten foot pole, not in the world in which we live in today.

At the very beginning of writing the books of SONG I thought I might make the Catholics and the Baptists mad but so far they've not been critical of the 'truth' as it seems to me: by definition you CANNOT have a Father and a Son without a Mother - so how can that third Person of the Holy Trinity be anyone except the Mother? It's pretty obvious who a person's mother is at birth. There have been cases where fathers' identities haven't been all too clear, though. Female lineages are a lot more clear and easier to track, if you ask me. That's a scientific fact: mDNA is way easier to work with. It's consistent and accurate, relatively speaking. Point being that women are at least as important as men. If you find that threatening in some way, oh well.

Be that as it may be, I take the Mother's place in the Trinity as a given, something patriarchal ideologies could take exception to so I guess I'm lucky to be ignored.

And the women of Celt ancestry still bow to no-one. Ever.

So there's that to not worry about.

Not being overly fond of ideologies that go around trying to shove their beliefs down people's throats, and separating said throats from bodies and heads if opposed, yes I've taken a dim view of Rome's usurpation of the Faith they could not manage to eradicate in 300 years of trying. That they then weaponized it while denying half of the human population equal representation doesn't set too well with me, either. Being a descendant of the ones who held out, never gave up, never gave in, and won in the end, maybe it's something in my DNA that refutes the right of any to dictate to any other, let alone all.

Maybe it's because the church came to its senses in the end, after too long a time and too much brutality, that my condemnation of the early practices of the Roman church isn't being lashed out about.

Maybe it's because the peoples of Europe did, in the end, form themselves into strong independent nations once Rome's boot was off their throats - again, not quickly and not easily and with too much brutality - but they did it. And the very peoples who had held Europe for millennia before Rome came calling were back in control of their Continent. Fussin' and fuedin' an't nothin' new, folks. The factions of the Celts had been perfecting it for thousands of years already. That they'd HAD thousands of years TO perfect it says something about the stability of their culture, appearances to the contrary be damned. They were fussin' and fuedin', not trying to own everybody else body and soul.

So there are two more things to not worry about since who's gonna argue with what's already done and over with, right?

Right.

So far, so good.

The kicker here is that while I'm writing all this stuff about the past, there are a few things going on in our present that are liable to become obviously connected to said past. That's what's gonna keep me safe from media, from politics, from religion, and from invasive ideologies. Ain't nobody gonna want to go out on THAT limb I tell you true.

Writing fiction about ancient times is one thing. Connecting it incontrovertibly to current events is not gonna fly. So it's a good thing I just want to tell the Story and am not ambitious.

Because what motivates Ullin of Iona, RICIMER, and all the rest of our Characters is what lies at the heart of our current situations.

These Circles mean something:

That center Circle is FAITH

The rest of them represent

FAMILY

FRIENDS

FREEDOM

FUTURE

They're our Legacy.

This symbol, which you haven't seen as much of, means something too:

It's a pretty design, this is true.

It's also a warning.

This is the way it is NOT supposed to be.

It will not work.

Here is a representation of the underlying design by which our world is governed:

I call it the Father Phi Spiral.

That's for a couple of reasons.

One is that the line through the middle makes the Spiral look more like the symbol we recognize as PHI.

Phi is the blueprint of our world.

You can look it up if you doubt me.

The second reason is that it's one of the oldest of all symbols preserved by humankind. 

It means something.

It has always meant something.

It has always meant the same thing.

CREATION

GOD

1.618

BALANCE

And you know what the building blocks of the Spiral consist of?

TRIANGLES

What I'm about to suggest might make every religion except for maybe Buddhism and Hindu mad as hornets but I don't particularly care.

[WARNING: SIDETRACK]

Because it's not 'just' that the Holy Trinity has to have a female function if creation is to continue to procreate, which it most assuredly will, with or without humankind.

It's not 'just' that I find it personally offensive, what has been done in the name of 'religion' for all this time.

As a matter of fact it doesn't have much of anything to do with 'religion' at all, because people get to choose what (if anything) they want to believe.

What it has to do with is that attempts to twist the Spiral out of balance have caused, are causing, and will cause literal harm to innocent folk.

Half of us can't be heading in one direction and the other half heading in the opposite direction, and any of us expect balance to be maintained. It hasn't worked yet and it ain't gonna EVER WORK. Our universal - literally - governing principles will not allow it. [sidetrack inside sidetrack: speaking of governing principles, the Constitutional Republic government of the United States of America is fundamentally based on PHI.]

Look again at this warning symbol:

Say you're on one side of this 'twisted spiral' thing and I'm on the other, just walking along.

Where are we going to end up?

We'll either hit a dead end

or collide in the middle.

Either way we lose.

Plus, that spiral ain't gonna stay twisted like that because by design it CAN'T stay that way.

One side or the other is gonna flip back around so it's all in balance again.

So what in the heck do we think we're DOING?

May as well stick with the PHI thing and not lose our balance in the first place, if you ask me.

Which I realize you didn't.

[END SIDETRACK]

I think that maybe, just maybe, the significance of triangles and spirals and such clear back as far as we can track humankind has to do with something we ALL instinctively KNOW somehow.

There's no conflict between Science and Faith. They're the same thing.

Which is another thing to not worry about because Science is zipping right along to prove it and Faith is plodding reluctantly to accept it.

So what's the worry?

Me, I'm not worried because I'm just a little old lady with no real stake in much of anything - nothing to lose that I haven't already lost or don't care if I do lose.

But there are folks in our world who would likely not appreciate having people's attention drawn to parallels between historic fact and current events.

The divisions caused by 'identity politics', for example, mean that twisted Spiral is already out of balance. And I don't have to tell you who's been pushing that for a while now. I doubt they know what they're doing, but maybe they're hoping that when the time comes it will be the other side of the twist that will swing around and the Spiral will balance itself in their favor.

On the other end of the spectrum, but on that same side of the twisted Spiral, are the folks trying to shove the EU down the throats of the peoples of Europe. They don't want anyone reminded of how that ended when Rome tried to do it - twice - once via military and once via ideology. Neither ended well for Rome although Europe, once recovered from the ravages inflicted by the attempts, came out of it with those strong independent nations that Ullin and RICIMER and the others were betting on. Rome struck out twice trying what they're trying now.

Yet another loser in this equation is an ideology that can't seem to wrap its head around either the Holy Trinity OR that a Mother is required if there are to even BE a Father and a Son - OR that what they're trying to do has already failed more than once.

None of those people want to be challenged to explain how on earth they think they're going to take two failures and turn out a success by trying the exact same things. It's not like math where two negatives can produce a positive.

Honestly.

What did they do, look at history and say, 'Hey, check this out! This thing here FAILED spectacularly, and that thing over there FAILED just as spectacularly! Let's put them together and they'll be GREAT! We'll rule the world!'

Considering that the goal of both examples had been to 'rule the world', and both FAILED spectacularly, success by combining the two doesn't exactly seem very promising.

My point here, and in the books, is that our fictional folk (some not quite all the way fictional) SUCCEEDED in what they set out to do, not because they themselves were masters at what they did (although they were) but because their goal was WHAT THE COLLECTIVE, INSTINCTIVE, WILL OF THE PEOPLES AFFECTED WANTED.

So the moral of the Story is: the EU is doomed, and so is that invasive ideology. One is trying what Rome tried first; the other is trying what Rome tried second. Against the exact same populations of people. For that matter, some folks in the States are trying to do do what Rome also tried: pitting folks against each other. That, if you recall, resulted in something called the Barbarian Conspiracy, which didn't work out so well for Rome in the end did it?

Mamm of Dunnottar, fictionally speaking, asked Attila, "How stupid are you?!?"

Me, I would never think of asking anyone any such thing.

Out loud.

I might wonder it to myself, though.

If you're going to try stuff, you might want to first do a little homework so you know a little something about the people you're up against.

Not to be a spoil sport or anything, but at least three quarters of the citizens of the United States of America are probably descendants of the peoples Rome FAILED against - twice. The percentage in Europe is likely higher yet.

Fussin' and fuedin' is one thing Rome thought was more than it was.

Leave off the crap and leave our Legacy alone. 

Our instincts are still intact.

Believe me.

Go play in the rest of the world, and quit tryin' to mess with our Circles.

RICIMER MIGHT COME BACK.

And see how you like them apples.

Women's Issues

Women's issues have been near and dear to my heart since I was 18 years old and walked into the Women's Center of the UND campus to start my job there. I've worked with Crisis Pregnancy Centers and been a Domestic Violence Advocate.

It doesn't hurt that I've got a darned strong woman as a mother, either. 

My sisters are gifted with talent, business acumen, creativity, and tenacity. 

The four daughters I bore are now strong, loving, powerful women in their own right. 

My grandmothers were amazing survivors of times we might not make it through - but they did. So did the generations before them.

Strong women have been my good friends for as long as I can remember.

So.

What are women upset about?

Well, I suppose the same old things: wages, inflexible or irregular work hours, single parenting, birth control, rape, child care, freedom to choose whom they love, marketing of women both figuratively and literally, the abuses of women (in some cultures atrocities against women are all too much the 'norm') ... you know, women's things.


Women are also plenty upset about the same sorts of things that men are upset about when it comes to conditions both local and global, but they've also got their own ^^^ objectives which, if properly addressed and corrected, might prove to go a long way toward the mending of a lot of other plagues that beset us.

Think about this for a minute.

There are all sorts of things that divide us as a people in general. Socio-economic standing, race, religion, lifestyles, politics ... you name it and it's a dividing factor.

When FINALLY  the women of the west manage to get their act together, none of those things are going to matter a whit to them. 

Not. A. Single. Factor. Will. Divide. Them.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a while.

Women make up fully HALF of the population of the WORLD.

In the United States alone there are well over 150,000,000 of us. A hundred and fifty million women, choosing to stand together for something or against something is going to have more than a little OOMPH to it.

Now, some of us remember at least part of the days of The Women's Movement from back in the day. Not the WAY back days of Suffrage, mind you, but the ones of the century just past. We are now the women of the Boomers and we are legion. Okay, more than legion but that's a phrase that has a specific sort of connotation of there being a LOT of something.

If you think that 'movement' was something, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Because a lot of us Boomers are still around, and the Millennials are even more plentiful.

And if you think we Boomers were enthusiastic about getting behind a 'cause', look at the Millennials. They CARE. Exactly what they care about, and whether or not we happen to agree with them or think them brats, the point is that THEY CARE AND THEY CARE DEEPLY.

So.

Let's give them something worth caring ABOUT, shall we?

No I'm not an old 'feminist' trying to resurrect something that's not going to be resurrected.

This is NOT about man-bashing or about avenging the wrongs of the past (and they too are legion, but we have to let them go). 

Why?

Because there's more at stake now than probably ever before in the history of humankind, that's why. 

The Women of the West HAVE to be confident in the wielding of their own power, folks. We soon aren't going to have any other option so we'd best start getting used to the idea.

We cannot correct the ills of our world alone; neither can the men. We cannot waste ourselves in stupid needless battles. We are needed and our men are JUST as needed. Granted, they haven't exactly set us the best example in general, but we cannot do this without them.

Do this? What 'this'?

The Dalai Lama nailed it back at that speech he gave in Canada a few years ago, people. It was in Vancouver in September of 2009 and a link is below if you're interested. He said that the Women of the West would have to save the world. 

Western women (click to link) have something our more Eastern women don't seem to have quite as much of, and here we are griping. Really. We've got a freedom that many women of our world don't enjoy, let alone take for granted, let alone whine in spite of.

We can do what they cannot, and we'd best be getting on with it.

Because it's going to take a bloody long time just to clean up our own back yards, it behooves us to stick together and get that job done in a timely manner, because the rest of the world ain't gonna sit around watching us and waiting for us to finish what we start at home. 

Since I'm an American and North America is my home, I'm talking of the Women of the West as my peers and colleagues here in the United States and Canada. Mexico too has a lot of powerful strong women, and here's hoping they will begin wielding their own power as well.

You see, we are the grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters of the land and we don't seem to be anywhere near as proud of that as we have the right to be.

And I'm not talking about women necessarily taking on political roles, although that certainly is a part of the whole thing if that's what they're called to do. We aren't all particularly suited for such things, and neither are our men for that matter. There are plenty of examples of both men and women ill-suited for that so we'll let it rest for the moment and focus on the vast majority of the rest of us.

Some of us are too old, or ill, to actively participate in what I'm talking about, but the input of their wisdom is incalculably vital if we're going to be making any headway at all. So first thing off the bat is consulting with our Elders. For one thing, it's good manners; for the main thing, they've got decades of experience in dealing with humanity that most of us don't. So ... go and ask them. 

Being as I'm almost old enough to be consulted, and have known a LOT of women older than me, I have a fairly decent idea about what you'll hear. I'll tell you later if you want; for now there's a concept that needs to be presented.

Now, as the grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and daughters of our land, we kind of have a responsibility here. We've kind of been letting that slide for quite a while, but it's not too late to get to our feet and start raising a ruckus.

We don't need to be raising a ruckus about that list up there. Everyone is already long sick and tired of hearing it.

No.

What we need to be raising a collective ruckus about are things like ... well ... like the stuff that's been going on in spades for a long time and seems to have intensified in the past couple of years.

You know what I'm talking about. 

Riots, for one thing - and violent crimes - and people being threatened. You know darned well what all I'm talking about because it bothers you as much as it does me.

We might have to, at first, take on the troubles as women. But, knowing the strength of our men, we'll soon have them at our sides. Not behind us backing us, and not in front of us protecting us, but at our sides.

I'm not talking about all of us suddenly getting a radical hair up our backsides, you know. All I'm saying is that if something happens to be developing in your particular area, don't just yammer about it over coffee. Call all of the women you know and get yourselves together to confront it. Never try to 'go it alone' because you aren't going to get anywhere except probably hurt in some way or worse. Call people. Do something. Intervene by at least making your presence known and your Voices heard. 

This million women march at Washington isn't exactly my cup of tea but it has gotten my attention. Most of us will not be there. We will be at work or at home. That doesn't mean we are not a part of the whole thing. It's very rare that anything happens on such a big scale; we aren't going to fret ourselves about the women who are ready, willing, and able to attend that big march. I for one am pleased that they're going to do what they're going to do (as long as they're reasonable about it and nobody gets mean). If I were one of the organizers I would ban political signs, and signs that have to do with any specific issues from the above list. I'd have everyone carry signs with one symbol on them:

And leave it at that.

It's the symbol of our gender, in case you were wondering. It means female.

Personally, I don't happen to think that much of any of this has much of anything in particular to do with women's rights or women's issues. I think it has to do with taking a stand against the things that are wrong in our world, our society, and our home towns. 

For the record, women are not all innocents. There are as many horrible women as there are horrible men.

But I think there are enough of us who are not horrible, both male and female, to tend to those among us who are horrible.

I live in the country, but if I lived in town there would probably be ten or so women who feel the same way I do who lived on my block or cul-de-sac. In my neighborhood would be maybe fifty.

Fifty women standing together would be almighty intimidating to just about anyone.

Suppose, just as a for instance, you live in a town where there's going to be a protest of some kind. Women are justifiably notorious for their ability to spread the word about anything and everything in a heartbeat or less. Do that. When the protest starts, be there. Not as part of the protest, unless that's your thing, but just be there. If those are your kids out there protesting, or your siblings, or your friends or relatives, keep an eye on them - for their own safety and your own peace of mind. The very fact that you're there in big numbers might de-fuse what could otherwise get out of hand. If it does get out of hand, holler for whoever you might have in the protest, grab about twenty women to go with you, and go get your own the heck out of harm's way. Lock your arms together and go get them. Then don't step back. Instead, step up. 

Keep in mind that women don't really have any 'boundaries' to keep them from working together. The women you're locking arms with might be of any color, any socio-economic status, any religion, any lifestyle choice. NONE of those things matter, not when it comes to 'mother' stuff. What binds us as women is by far more powerful than anything that might divide us. Believe it because it's the absolute truth. Even the females in the protest are going to feel it in a way they won't want to acknowledge but it will be there, as sure as the sun rises and the stars shine in the sky.

After a few times of all of us standing together, we'll have our numbers doubled because our men are going to be standing with us.

If random acts start up in your neck of the woods, gather yourselves together and make your presence known.

On college campuses, do what we used to do - never be alone and never leave anyone behind. If they want to have a rendezvous with somebody, that somebody had better have passed the test of being closely scrutinized by a large group of women before we trust them with one of our own.

On a less dramatic front, use that incredible communication system to do good things, to help people who might need a hand. If you happen to know of somebody who needs food, clothing, or shelter, make your calls, spread the word, and tend to the needs of that person, that family, in a way that they will be able to accept and not feel like crap about it. Just gather the stuff they need and get somebody to go and give it to them with a note that only has that symbol on it, you know the one:

Nobody's going to be insulted at a gift from a mother, nobody. Their needs will be met and they're going to become a part of the people who are taking their stand against the ills of our society and our world. 

Another tack to think about:

A lot of us would truly love to help those from outside our own country who are in desperate need of help. We'd love to offer help to the refugees who really do need a safe place.

That's another reason for us to get ourselves pulled together to tend to the business of cleaning up our back yards. We cannot offer a safe place to others who are in need if our back yards aren't even safe for US.

We who are the Women of the West do not need to choose any particular 'issue' to step up to the plate for, to go to bat for, to take our swing at, and to maybe hit a grand slam out of.

Every 'issue' affects us as women. That is our strength. As women we can take a stand about anything and everything. Because we're mothers, or will become mothers, or at the very least we HAVE mothers.

Our issues, as Mothers, are Justice and Mercy and Peace. It's as simple as that. 

If you're female, you're automatically one of us, no matter what.

And the thing about the 'Mother' identity is that (surprise) you can't have a Mother without there also being a Father involved.

So our fight is NOT against the males of our world.

Our fight is about those things I just mentioned:

Justice
Mercy
Peace

Because all men also have mothers (duh) they too are equally invested in the whole thing and will figure that out in their own (slow but sure) time. They've had several millennia in which to do their thing. Now it's our turn, but we aren't going to do it alone. We're going to do it together, the way it's supposed to have been all along.

Strong, Educated, Fierce, Passionate, Disciplined ... PEOPLE ... not women only

This popped up on my Facebook feed and I loved it on sight.

The only thing I would change is the word 'women' - it should be 'people'.

Because these words apply to all, not women only.

If you know me at all you know (and if you don't you will soon discover) that there bides within me a deep longing for peace.

Hear me now because these words are for you.

Peace will not come so long as there are inequalities based on anything except an individual's own choices, which will create for them either happiness or misery, no matter their situation in life.

The words above, the first ones, are beautiful and at one time in my life I would have embraced them with all of the heart of me.

What I notice now is that they appear to imply that the traits mentioned are not currently in effect, not in womankind, and therefore are needed.

The implication that they are lacking in womankind ... without including the other half of the human race ... led me to do the 'edit'.

Knowing me (or learning as we go here) you also know that in the course of the past year and a half or so I have received an unusual kind of education.

When first I saw the words I said to myself, 'Those are the Women of SONG!'

And so they are.

Almost immediately come into my ears the Voices of those Women. From Mamm of Perth all the way down to Rua come the female Voices of SONG, and then come ALL of the Voices of SONG, male and female alike.

'We stand not apart,' they say to me. 'Nor would we if we could.'

And I am humbled.

It seems my education is yet incomplete.

MY MOM DOUBLE DOG DARED ME!!! THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Mom sent me a forwarded e-mail of remembrances of times past - the 'good old days' as they are sometimes referred to by oldsters, 'ancient history' by younglings.

Her generation is a good twenty years before mine, and her mother's likewise twenty years before hers - nineteen teens through nineteen thirties through nineteen fifties and into now; keep that in mind. 

As I was reading through the text and looking at the photos, it dawned on me that almost all of these things were as familiar to me as they had been to my mother and my grandmother. 

Essentially, not all that much had changed over the three generations we encompass. 

Only a few of the references were 'before my time' and I had a pretty good idea what even those were all about. 

By contrast, I would wager that MY children would recognize a bare few of the photos or thoughts/feelings evoked, and those few only by hearsay or in reference to 'oldies'. 

When people say that EVERY generation has a completely different world to live in and cope with, they may be almost right on some counts - but when I can relate easily and naturally to so many of the same things that both my mother and grandmothers could ... and my children (now adults themselves with children of their own) haven't got the faintest idea of what any of it's about ... 

Well, that says something else, doesn't it? 

It's got me puzzling about it. 

The changes that have come about over the course of my children's lives DO seem to be leaping and bounding, so much so that the memory-making things of my own ... my mother's ... my grandmothers' ... time seem so far distant as to be over the horizon and beyond recall. 

Has the pace of life picked up so drastically that generational sharing of lifestyles has become impossible? 

Oh SUN ON A BEACH !!!

I can't get this concept to gel for me. 

What I want to know is how we have managed, in the course of ONE GENERATION, to have lost that continuity - and why.

The odd thing is that it doesn't seem a gradual loss but more of a sudden realization: HEY wait a gol-darn minute here what the bloody blue BLAZES has happened here anyhow?!? 

How is it that we three generations have maintained so much in common but THIS one is adrift by comparison? 

I have an overwhelming urge to chant 'Mea Culpa' because it must somehow be me. 

OH!

WHEW!

It's NOT just me. 

Granted, there are altogether too many traditions, thought processes, activities, memory-generating things that seem to have gone by the wayside. 

BUT when I stop to think more closely about the way things are NOW, I do realize that maybe just maybe all is not lost. 

Life is NOT the same now; it is, however, still OUR life, the one we've created to pick up where those old memory-makers leave off. 

While the highlights of my young life totally revolved around going to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, I have to try to remember that (back in the day) I wouldn't have been able to Skype my nephew halfway around the world.  My mom couldn't call me from wherever she happened to be and talk to me wherever I happened to be.  I wouldn't have been able to go shopping with my daughter from several hundred miles away.  As my grandchildren grow up, they'll be privy to the same electronics that their parents use with such skill - maybe one day my grand-daughter will be taking me shopping with HER ... via cell phone and data transfer so I can see what she's thinking about buying! 

Yes.  It's different. 

The things I, as the current 'middle generation', have in common with my mother and children are not the same things I, as the 'youngling generation' had with my mother and grandmothers - but we're making our own connections, traditions, activities, memory-generating things as we go along. 

As I move along in the generational line, I had best be paying attention to preserving the concept, if not the specifics, of keeping a connection in place. 

It's a fascinating journey, moving along from youngling to middle to oldster.  It all blends as it rolls along.

Too TOO often the challenges and struggles of the journey seem to be overwhelming and I lose sight of those cherished others who are on this self-same journey WITH me. 

And to that I WILL say:  Mea Culpa

Our work and life schedules are all different these days.  Few of us have nine to five jobs with every weekend off; fewer indeed are the stay at home moms of times past; fewer yet are generational family gatherings where the whole clan gets together to catch up on what everyone else has been up to and to bond as a unit.  We can NOT change the way things are back to the way they used to be - but we CAN make the most of the resources we have at our command.

We may not have the luxury of being able to gather very often as a big group.  We DO have the luxury of being able to visit with one another at will.  Electronics, when work and life schedules keep us apart, can and will keep us connected.  LOL and OMG have become a part of our vocabulary that my grandmothers would NEVER have recognized in their day.  Were they around now, you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be on top of it, just as my mom is. 

Back in the day answering machines were either non-existent or rare.  If you wanted to talk to someone on the phone you had to catch them when they were at home. 

Now I can talk to or text people whenever I want, and leave messages on any number of their devices or electronic accounts; and the reverse likewise.  We may not be immediately available for our communications, but the messages get through.  We can go places and do things together whether we're in the same place at the same time or not. 

Family conferences have been enhanced by electronics.  You can be there even if you're not there. 

Heh heh ... we're all there even though none of us is all there. 

Sometimes I wish it could be more like the 'good old days' but then I do remember that THESE ARE GOOD DAYS TOO.  Traditions change and generations advance, but life is an ever-onward process; would we really want it any other way?  Nope.  And a good thing too because we really don't have much say in the matter! 

A man asks God: Why do women cry so easily?

My friend Twyla finds these things and posts them on Facebook; most of them make me cry and all of them make me grateful to have a friend like her. 

Twyla Delzer

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him. "I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say. The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God.

When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry ...so easily?"

God said: "When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her man through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good man never hurts his woman, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfaulteringly.

And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."