Thought for today:
"Show me an adventurous girl any day of the week that isn't afraid to jump in puddles for the sheer hell of the experience and I'll show you a perfect partner, a good mother in the making, the warmest of wives and an individual who will never be taken for granted or thinks less of herself than any man. Show me the devilment in her eye and I'll show you the God in her nature. Any woman who exercises the blind faith to leap into the unknown of a man-made-world and displays the confidence and conviction to refuse to be taken on any terms other than those of 'equality,' is my kind of person.
For most of my adult life as a Probation Officer and Stress Counsellor, I specialised in working with thousands of stressful people. I invariably found that women tended to have twice as many breakdowns than men, populate the hospital wards more, experienced more anxiety issues and were more likely to feel less confident and see themselves as failures than their male counterparts. I also found that they took on the greatest load, they did without more than their man and they allowed themselves to feel more responsible than their man when problems arose.
My own research and historical knowledge over the years into this wide disparity between the two sexes led me to conclude that man and woman have never shared an equal playing field and sadly still don't.
When it is women who have had centuries of being put down by men while being denied access to all manner of equality and positions in society: when it is women who are expected to make one week's housekeeping stretch over two and feed the family without going into debt: when it is women who are responsible for birthing the new generation while being expected by man to maintain a female form that looks ten years younger than one's age; and when it is women who have always borne the biggest burden when the bundles of hardship carried were being distributed, no wonder the most popular catchword of the late game show host, Cilla Black, to capture the nation was, 'Surprise! Surprise!
Over the past seventy years, the changes where I consider progress to have been most made and warmly welcomed have been witnessed in the growth of greater equality between black and white and woman and man. There has been great leaps and bounds made in reducing the elements of racism and sexism in British society, but we deceive ourselves if we wrongly believe that inequality no longer exists in these areas! There still remains an injustice, inconsistency, disparity, incompatibility, dissonance and discrepancy between the black and white citizen and both sexes. Perhaps, for some men and women, the differences may prove irreconcilable; hence the lesser importance society places on marriage today and the greater incidence we witness of relationship break ups and divorce?
I have always held the view that in the struggle for any form of equality, that the wider the understanding of the cause, the more likely it is to be successful when the person/group at its centre is its most vocal and demonstrative advocate. Blacks have achieved greater advancement for blacks than whites have ever manage on their behalf, just as women have done more for advancing the cause of women than any man ever did on their behalf.
The eventual obtaining of Civil Rights in the 1950s and 60s in America only came about when it was black people who stood their corner and put their lives on the line! So it was with the Suffragettes in the early 20th century, who endured imprisonment, starvation and death to advance their cause.
Women, wake up to the inherent wrong you have suffered for countless millennia. It is your actions that will bring about equality between the sexes far quicker than any well intentioned man ever could! Your life was given to be enjoyed, not endured. Understand that there is no situation or person incapable of being changed, no feeling that is ever final. When life is hard to take in, that is the time to be easy on yourself and to forgive your mistakes. Be not indebted to those in your life whom you have been told you owe the most, namely men, because the customs and laws governing all their accepted teachings were done by men!
My message to all is this. Pay your dues to the ones who made you the person you are, your family, friends, parents, your God. Jump in that puddle! Rejoice in happy moments and time will not pass you by, for there is no better repayment for happy times than to enjoy them. When that day comes that you lie upon your last bed and your past life floats across your eyes, make sure its worth watching and proves not a disappointment." William Forde: April 19th, 2016.
"Show me an adventurous girl any day of the week that isn't afraid to jump in puddles for the sheer hell of the experience and I'll show you a perfect partner, a good mother in the making, the warmest of wives and an individual who will never be taken for granted or thinks less of herself than any man. Show me the devilment in her eye and I'll show you the God in her nature. Any woman who exercises the blind faith to leap into the unknown of a man-made-world and displays the confidence and conviction to refuse to be taken on any terms other than those of 'equality,' is my kind of person.
For most of my adult life as a Probation Officer and Stress Counsellor, I specialised in working with thousands of stressful people. I invariably found that women tended to have twice as many breakdowns than men, populate the hospital wards more, experienced more anxiety issues and were more likely to feel less confident and see themselves as failures than their male counterparts. I also found that they took on the greatest load, they did without more than their man and they allowed themselves to feel more responsible than their man when problems arose.
My own research and historical knowledge over the years into this wide disparity between the two sexes led me to conclude that man and woman have never shared an equal playing field and sadly still don't.
When it is women who have had centuries of being put down by men while being denied access to all manner of equality and positions in society: when it is women who are expected to make one week's housekeeping stretch over two and feed the family without going into debt: when it is women who are responsible for birthing the new generation while being expected by man to maintain a female form that looks ten years younger than one's age; and when it is women who have always borne the biggest burden when the bundles of hardship carried were being distributed, no wonder the most popular catchword of the late game show host, Cilla Black, to capture the nation was, 'Surprise! Surprise!
Over the past seventy years, the changes where I consider progress to have been most made and warmly welcomed have been witnessed in the growth of greater equality between black and white and woman and man. There has been great leaps and bounds made in reducing the elements of racism and sexism in British society, but we deceive ourselves if we wrongly believe that inequality no longer exists in these areas! There still remains an injustice, inconsistency, disparity, incompatibility, dissonance and discrepancy between the black and white citizen and both sexes. Perhaps, for some men and women, the differences may prove irreconcilable; hence the lesser importance society places on marriage today and the greater incidence we witness of relationship break ups and divorce?
I have always held the view that in the struggle for any form of equality, that the wider the understanding of the cause, the more likely it is to be successful when the person/group at its centre is its most vocal and demonstrative advocate. Blacks have achieved greater advancement for blacks than whites have ever manage on their behalf, just as women have done more for advancing the cause of women than any man ever did on their behalf.
The eventual obtaining of Civil Rights in the 1950s and 60s in America only came about when it was black people who stood their corner and put their lives on the line! So it was with the Suffragettes in the early 20th century, who endured imprisonment, starvation and death to advance their cause.
Women, wake up to the inherent wrong you have suffered for countless millennia. It is your actions that will bring about equality between the sexes far quicker than any well intentioned man ever could! Your life was given to be enjoyed, not endured. Understand that there is no situation or person incapable of being changed, no feeling that is ever final. When life is hard to take in, that is the time to be easy on yourself and to forgive your mistakes. Be not indebted to those in your life whom you have been told you owe the most, namely men, because the customs and laws governing all their accepted teachings were done by men!
My message to all is this. Pay your dues to the ones who made you the person you are, your family, friends, parents, your God. Jump in that puddle! Rejoice in happy moments and time will not pass you by, for there is no better repayment for happy times than to enjoy them. When that day comes that you lie upon your last bed and your past life floats across your eyes, make sure its worth watching and proves not a disappointment." William Forde: April 19th, 2016.
