Both sides of the Street

Ya know, ya can't work both sides of the street. This was brought home hard to me this morning when I was asked by the president of our tennis club to speak to the manager about her outfits. When hired, this young lady dressed "properly". In fact, her contract stipulated "proper attire". But she failed to get what "proper" meant and her outfits gradually morphed into pole-dancing attire. Before the meeting I looked up "proper" in the dictionary just to have something to fall back on. It says........"correct, suitable, appropriate, fit, becoming, decent, respectable, according to strict definition". Who wudd'a thought I would have had to tell the manager what "proper" meant?! But she is south american and I had to spell it out.

Man, cultural differences are HUGE. I guess in Columbia men rule the world and women have to attract them to get a bit of power. No, "guess" is not the word. I know that's the case. As a mother of daughters, I am so proud of the fact that they advance because of their brains and education. In so many other countries, women have no alternative but to advance because of their physical and sexual attributes (I was going to say "tits and ass", but thought that might offend someone). Truth be told, women can be trophy wives in Canada too. We all know them. But women can get ahead on their own steam and for that I am so grateful.

One of my cousins was a "trophy wife" and she suffered mightily. But in her estimation the rewards reaped trumped the related degradation, else she would not have struggled miserably through that life. My mother used to say it was as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one. I tried, believe me, I tried. I dated lots of well-heeled, eligible young men and even got serious about one of the richest men in Canada. But I could not fall in love with him. Now when I see him at weddings and funerals I wonder about what might have been? But I know what would have been. We both know. Our respective marriages have worked out for the best.

On a related matter of nature, I was sitting on our balcony watching with annoyance a spider climbing on the wall. Bone laziness prevented me from fetching the ladder and bashing it. So I sat and watched it. As it spun its web I became transfixed. What a lovely creature it was. Back and forth it went, round and round it went, spinning and spinning its web. To think I was ready to clobber it! Most of need to get into the brain of that spider and learn something about commitment and dedication.