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Opinion
Letters
From North America
by Peary Perry
Men and Tools |
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The
best argument I can think of for my opposition to the theory of evolution
is the difference between the male and female sex.
If we are to believe that
both sexes crawled out of the primordial soup billions of years ago, then how
come there are two separate and distinct species, one male and one female? Seems
to me we'd be the same and would have evolved as the same, not two separate and
distinct beings.
And we are separate and distinct.
Last week I
wrote about the odd things that
happen to women when they are about to have a baby or are in the company of
a new baby. These traits are definitely female oriented. Men need to study these
and pay particular attention in order to preserve the domestic tranquility of
his home if he knows what's good for him. I think that phrase is in the Constitution,
if I'm not mistaken.
Women on the other hand, need to also recognize that
men have particularities that might seem strange to the female line of reasoning,
but are not questionable to any male.
For example, women will
save every item that belongs to her children. From the wristband at the hospital
to the first Mothers Day card and everything in between. Women are the primary
reason for self storage lockers. Not there is anything wrong with this, since
everyone knows you might need that progress report from Mrs. Wankels Kindergarten
class when your child is running for President fifty years from now. These things
are important to mothers. They aren't to fathers.
No, Fathers can look
at a birthday card, Fathers Day card or whatever and toss it the next day without
reservation. He knows he'll get another one next year. Same thing with toys. Mothers
will hide their children's toys for generations and Fathers can decide to clean
out the attic one weekend and out goes everything little Johnny played with for
the first seven years of his life. The only reason we have antiques today is due
mainly to the preservation of items by dominant women. "That table is staying;
it belonged to my grandmother…" "But it's old"…."Yes..it is and it's going to
get older…"
Men would have thrown those old things away years ago. Look
at the scarcity of items from prehistoric days. This was in the time frame before
storage units were invented. Men just tossed everything away when they got tired
of them or needed the room.
With the exception of one thing…tools.
You
go to any museum in the world today and you will most likely find tools from ancient
times being displayed. Not toys, not baby clothes, not greeting cards, but tools.
Men have defied logic for thousands of years and kept tools which have survived
the ice age, the industrial age and the rock and roll era as well. Men can throw
everything else away except for a tool. I have chisels that I have owned for over
forty years that have never been used. Who chisels? What could I chisel in my
house? Nothing that I can think of. Nothing even comes to mind.
I have
hundreds of perfectly good Allen wrenches. When is the last time I needed one
of those? Couldn't tell you. But I've got them in case I need them. Most garages
in this country have not one, but two sets of tools. Men have the set the kids
can use, and then the set they hide, to be used for 'special' occasions. Women
might set that scarf or dress aside with the explanation that she is 'saving'
it for some special event in the future. Men will live in a condo unit in downtown
Manhattan and buy a chain saw. For what? Do they think a forest is going to break
out on 42nd Street? Will they be required to saw their way out of the building
at some point in time? Women should take note here that these things are not to
be questioned; it's just something you must live with and that cannot be explained
in logical terms.
Come on now, you can admit it, you know you have some
metric sockets hidden away that you don't want your teen age son to find. You're
saving those aren't you? A missing tool is the same to a man as a mutiny is to
a sea captain. Men will have at the most four or five pair of shoes, but seventeen
Phillips head screwdrivers. You can never have enough Phillips head screwdrivers.
A good Phillips head screwdriver is hard to find.
Men buy tools to be
used for projects they will never in this lifetime complete or are qualified to
even contemplate. I know accountants who have enough tools in their garage to
overhaul complete engines and these men can't open the hoods on their cars, but
they have the tools to do a complete valve job if they are ever called upon to
do so. I suppose it has something to do with thinking we are in control and might,
just might be called upon to change some spark plugs or a water pump. Into the
Valley of Death rode the six hundred, that sort of thing. We have it in our minds
that we must be prepared to give to God, country and the family car.
One
last word of advice to women. Tools and sporting equipment such as fishing and
hunting gear are the key connectors to men and their concept of mortality. Once
you throw away his baseball glove that hasn't been used in thirty years or clean
the garage and sell off those old tools he never uses, you might as well stick
a fork in him.
He's done.
© Peary Perry
Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com
Letters From North America
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