Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Great Confusion

This is a story that begins somewhere in the mists of time, when early man roamed the Earth. A passing Neanderthal man saw a beautiful Neanderthal women and said "Ugha Ugha" ("I really like you") to which she replied "Grah urgh, gur, allar .. " ("I think I like you, but i'm not sure; my heart says yes, but my head says no. Tell you what, give me some time to think about it and get back to you"). He turned and started walking away, just as he disappeared out of sight she yelled out "ooom ugha ugha" ("I like you too, maybe!"). And so began the Great Confusion; the process whereby innocent men are completely befuddled by the great mystery that is womenkind.

This post is inspired by my recent receipt of a Dear John letter (an sms in this case).
Of course the sms was mindbogglingly stereotypical "You're a great person ... But I have commitment phobia"
I'm sorry, I missed the part where one enters into a relationship with the intention of committing?! And of course it must be my imagination running wild, when I recall the conversations about children and how bringing them up should never be a women's responsibility but rather a shared one.
One would imagine that these types of discussions, especially when initiated by the other party don't exude a sense of commitment phobia but rather almost the other extreme.

One or two friends suggested that the girl was crazy, another even offered up a clinical diagnosis. But I don't think that, it's that simple. Rather I believe it is symptomatic across much of womankind. It would be easy to dismiss if this was an isolated incident, but cast your mind's back gentle readers, and every single one of you will be able to recall something similar.

The most visible symptom of this disease that appears endemic in the female population, is the concept of "blowing hot and cold", erratic behaviour and a general unpredictability. As men I believe, that too often we attempt to treat these symptoms as if they are issues in an of themselves as opposed to having a single root cause. The root cause is the concept of "confusion".

One of the smarter male tweeters described best how most men view relationships "Guys are either we want you or we don't. No maybe". Sure, there are some men, who don't behave in this manner, and the general belief is that, one can not claim to be a "Man" and then behave in this manner.

In contrast, not only do most women behave in this manner, but in general they justify it with totally outlandish statements "It's a women's prerogative to change her mind". Perhaps a few members of the fairer sex would care to enlighten me, and explain how with that type of an attitude and the resultant behaviour it could possibly be men who are more confusing than women?



Thanks to Sofia Fatima for encouraging me to blog this and Bibi Aisha for reminding me :-)
Apologies for the quality of the post .. insomnia and a sense of guilt for not doing this earlier ..
It was therapeutic though.

Would love to hear what everyone thinks ..