| Shopping! |
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| Christopher Nevill | |||
| Tuesday, 24 January 2006 | |||
Shopping as an activity has been around for a very long time indeed. For as long as there have been people who have something to sell there have been people who want have a look at what is on offer. Shopping malls are not new. The concept of the bazaar (which is an ancient Persian word), which is nothing more or less than a shopping mall, has been with us for thousands of years. Men tend to "buy" things. A man comes to realize that he needs a shirt (or two) and will head for the most convenient shop, buy what he needs and leave. In fact a man seems to be stricken with a strange kind of guilt if does not buy something once he has entered a shop and will often leave with something that he neither wants nor needs. Total time (including parking) 30 minutes! Not so a woman! A woman (and I was discussing this with my wife) will take a whole day moving in a leisurely fashion from shop to shop, calmly demanding that assistants destroy window displays and empty storerooms without the slightest qualm and end up buying not a single item. Often she has not the slightest intention of buying anything right from the beginning. It is altogether a remarkable phenomenon. What is also amazing from the male perspective is that the shop assistants co-operate in this activity. There is a kind of female bonding that takes place as the merits and demerits of each piece of merchandise are discussed and then re-discussed. Both talking at once and yet in some mysterious way each hearing exactly what the other is saying Men tend to be rude about women and their shopping. Perhaps what we should be doing is asking why is it like that, rather than simply making it silly and wrong. It should be looked at as a profound manifestation of one of the great female talents without which life might not even be possible. In all primitive societies (even those that exist today) one of the divisions of labour that seem to occur quite naturally between men and women is that men are the Hunters and women the Gatherers. Men have an ability to focus their attention intently and it is this ability to be single-minded that enables them to both find and bring down their quarry. The women on the other hand have made gathering their speciality. This becomes social event, as the women wander through the countryside each with their basket. Each item must first be discovered and then mulled over to decide on it edibility and safety. Verbal communication is not only possible but also very necessary. All this gathering activity requires a wide-ranging vision and remarkable ability to see detail. Above it needs an extraordinary ability to see value in something that may to the casual glance appear to be quite unimportant or meaningless. It is this last female ability that is so undervalued by our male dominated society. So I say this to our male readers. When next your female partner goes shopping be aware of this. She is giving expression to one of the most valuable talents she has - the ability to discover and find value in something that we mere males would not even see! So do yourself a favour next time your lady comes to you with something that really seems to be a little weird. Pay attention! She is bringing you something of great value outside of your ability to even conceive of!
Disclaimer: Harmonious Living is written for and read by a community of individuals with strong and independent opinions. While the publishers of Harmonious Living are dedicated to providing a forum in which views can be openly expressed, those views do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
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This is the powerful story of the author's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis and how a healer's unusual prescription of mindful altruism - to 'give away 29 gifts in 29 days' - ignited her energy, her happiness, and invited more abundance into her life.
