JMJ

Today is baking day. One Marine, in an outfit we support, wrote that brownies from home have been known to incite knifefights...lol...yeah like Marines aren't already bellicose enough I don't mind throwing in some baked goods into the mix...I think I will want some pictures of that.

With being fortunate enough to hear from one of the Marines I support, I am struck by how you can develop the elements of a relationship you have with your family or dear friends. You worry a little, if they don't get back to you in the usual time frame. You know what time it is there, worry about Ramadan and all the implications that has for all of them there...what with the gates of hell being closed and acts in the name of Allah having 10,000 more times the impact during this holy season and all.

I wonder how many emails that man has to answer from supporters? They must mark for him the worlds we live in being so, so divergent. He mentions mortar attacks like we would tell someone the cable is out. I tell him to be careful like his riding his bike on the big street for the first time and not like he is about to ride his bike on the big street with the snipers.

Women tend to support more than men. I think expect it speaks to our general ability or instinct to nurture--- Read here: fuss over, nag to be careful, and demand details--did I mention fuss over?

We were at a fieldtrip yesterday and I had another look at the girl/boy tendencies which anecdotally played themselves out in support of my argument here. So hell yes, I am going to use them here.

Well actually--I wasn't planning on making these observations. What started it was noticing the way one of the older girls carried my son. She did it on one hip thrown out with the ease of a mother used to simultaneously carrying and explaining and encouraging participation in her charge.

It just struck me. The girls sheperded the littler ones, slinging them on hips, giving drinks etc. and when it was time to clean up they wiped tables and the brochure stand was well picked over as they gathered pamphlets. The boys were fascinated with the projector and tried hard not to make bird signs on the screen and were most excited about touching an alligator (a baby one, but they didn't seem concerned with size as much as they were its potential) and collected trash from an activity.

It starts early. I won't tie into the nurture versus nature debate. I am not even sure where I stand on it--but I am fascinated by the stereotypes. I won't lie. I think most hold the world stereotype by its antennae or back leg so as to suggest they themselves would never stoop so low as to have one, but---geez... gimme a break --we all do and we do because there is some basis for them.

Men and women are different. We do see things by and large, differently. If we didn't than Marines out in the Anbar province, who never put their rifles down, wouldn't be getting brownies soon.