What a Marvel is a Pen!

Ah! What beauty! What intricacy! All so diverse, and yet alike--have you not stopped, my friend, to marvel at these humble writing instruments? 

Look--ballpoints, felt-tips, fountain pens, gel pens--yet every single one serves like purpose. Each one leaves its ink to spell your thoughts. All can create beauty or monstrosity, for all have the common aspect of ink--ink which flow from the tiny hole or wets the whole tip--ink, contained within, perfect to stay on the page behind it. 

Think, my friends--what marvel of nature formed this wonder? Oh, we can see a little of it's evolution. From quill to fountain pen, to ball point, to fiber tip to roller ball, then finally, today, the height of glory: The noble gel ink pens. Richer colour, with greater diversity and faster flow--how fne a thing! To think that Mother Nature works such wonders without any outward help shows us again how great the forces of this earth are. Over the ages, slowly, the quills, fallen bird feathers, took form with tips and found ink to dip in--ink which, itself had slowly emerged from berry juices and from soot to blend and make a surer substance.Then, in time, as ink and pen grew ever closer, the ink made its way inside to form this glorious symbiotic union and thus become useful. By necessity, to prevent their ink drying, they developed lids and clickers to withdraw the tip, dividing into to families within the pen species--the lidded and lidless. 

And now, today, we can look upon this undesigned wonder and see purpose and profit in it's transformations. The diversity still visible today stands as a witness that no creator was needed. We have many links--like the rollerball which stands clearly as the descendant of the ballpoint and father of the modern gel ink pen. Be astounded, and look to the power of nature at work over the centuries.

What a marvel is a man.... 

Ladies, we have a problem

Here, I shall take a break from my typical writing for a little rant.

It was inspired by something I saw on Facebook today:

It is hard to be a woman. If this came from a Muslim country or India or somewhere else where women are genuinely oppressed, I would agree, But this is a bad case of Modern, Western, White People's Problems. Here, we have women taking a victim mentality in a culture where they are as far from victims as is humanly possible. 

For years, I have seen post after post complaining about how hard our world is on women. The first and most obvious problem with this can be seen in the fact that I, as a woman, can make this post while a man could not.

If I were to write on how men are better off than women, my article would be embraced. In fact, that is what most of the posts I have seen were: Women saying that men have it way easier than we do.

Now if a man were to assert that women have better lives than men, he would be called a chauvinist pig and unceremoniously blocked from several portions of social media. Far be it from a man to be anti-women, yet society insist that a woman ought to be anti-men.
And if you are rising up in arm saying "To be pro-women is not anti-men!", I must ask what war you are fighting. Why do you need to be pro-women if you have no enemy?
The direst manifestation of this anti-men sentiment is the pillaging of masculinity. Gender roles, an essential for the survival of society as a whole, are being broken down and destroyed. Women expect men to be the tender, delicate ones. The whole idea of fatherhood is viciously assaulted as a thing of time past. The bread-winner and the protector are demonized in preference of the gamer and the sissified mommy's-boy. The woman fights to be the boss, the tough one, and the head of the family while the man quietly sinks into the background.
Thus, I would argue that being a woman is easy. A woman can speak her mind. A woman can pull the oppression card whenever things don't go her way. A woman can manipulate without being seen as evil. A woman can be whatever she wants to be, at home and at work.
It's the men who are in trouble. Men must filter their speech for the feminists' sake. A man is always the one labeled the oppressor. A manipulative man is the evil of all evils. A man must watch his words and moves wherever he goes.

Thus, though I have no experience, I suspect it is considerably harder to be a man today--a real man, who stands up when others fall, who protects and provides, who leads by example. This is not the oppressive patriarchy. This is what we need today--this may be society's only hope.

So, ladies, do not look at yourself as oppressed and a victim of chivalry. You are a woman. Embrace that--you do not have to strive to be the "empowered woman".
Secondly, challenge the men in your life. Don't push them down and let them fall. Be the helper you were designed to be and help them rise. End this assault on manhood.

And if this made you mad, please take a deep breath and count to ten before commenting.