http://youtube.com/watch?v=89L86yWdWkg

Blood never forgets but who protects the memories when we bleed each other from the vein

I wish that men could be better men. I wish that, as a gender, they would all just put a little more effort into being better people, into treating women with more kindness and respect. Be better friends, better dads, better boyfriends, husbands, lovers, uncles, brothers etc. Of all of my girlfriends I only know one who doesn't have issues because of her father. I don't think men realize how much they can screw up their daughters. Or how much it could make their daughter's day if they just listened to them and at least acted interested in what they had to say or even better, they initiate the conversation on their own. Just saying "Hi. How was your day?" every evening and then listening to their answer and the shrink business would be cut in half. Fathers leave, or they abuse, they yell, they don't protect, they don't provide, they provide but they don't listen, they love but they don't like. They are experts, licensed to tell other people how to work out their relationships but they never say a word about the girl in their own home whose heart breaks every time she tries to tell him something about herself and he brushes her off for the television, for work, for someone else.

I wish that men understood how difficult it is to be a female. How it feels to be constantly and publicly critiqued for the way we look and act. How it feels to walk down a street and have men yell obscene things, look you up and down, follow you, touch you. I wish that the men who don't do these things could understand that these kinds of things do happen every day to women. And I don't just mean every day to some woman somewhere, I mean to each and every woman, every day they walk outside. I wish men had more respect for the fact that our gender has more crime against us than any other minority in America and that leaves us feeling scared and defensive.

I am a strong female. I have lived, traveled and worked by myself. I can, and do, stand up for myself and for others. But I can't be okay in certain areas of my life because of certain men's actions. Girls are petty, and we hurt each other and we hurt others, but none of my girlfriends have ever been hurt so much and so deeply by each other than they have by men in their lives. Some of the women closest to my heart are absolutely crippled by that pain.

I know many good men, let me say that clearly, but they are few and far in-between. And you can just tell that they are good, that they are compassionate and kind and honest and protective. They've been family, friends... I've even dated some. And when things don't work out with them you get that sinking feeling in your chest and your head hurts and you can't breathe for a few seconds and sometimes you cry that very quiet, watery, painful cry because you know that one of the few truly good men in your life has left.

I wish I could say this all a little more eloquently. And it is nothing new... I just wish that men would step it up a little bit and take some more responsibility, or even give a little more recognition to my gender and their effect on us. I wish I wish I wish.

K

Only to say...

Adventures are surely afoot.

:)