Three Little Words

Three Little Words

Here in the states the countdown to the festive season has begun in earnest.  In the NY Times yesterday, I read an article about a woman in Natchez Mississippi who is expecting one hundred and forty-five people for Thanksgiving dinner.   Needless to say, she has been preparing for this annually performed culinary feat since before Halloween.  Everywhere I looked today I saw women with lists - checking things off, getting ready - secure in the knowledge that the majority of holiday tasks will fall to them no matter what other responsibilities they may have. 

On my recent journey to the Shetland Islands, I took a Fair Isle knitting class in which I was introduced to an odd object called a “knitting belt”, a horsehair-filled leather pouch dotted with holes in which to stick one’s knitting needles.  Women used to employ these, and many still do, so that they could knit whilst keeping one hand free to perform other tasks such as cooking, laundry and gardening, a triumph of dexterity that boggles the mind. 

We women are remarkable creatures.  Whilst our male friends may occasionally speak of “multi-tasking” as a notable skill, we know it to be a way of life.  We are well acquainted with doing many things at once, and I might add, doing them pretty doggone well.  We have evolved to a point where we take pride in our independence and self-reliance, comfortably confident in our intelligence and our abilities.  And yet….

Last week during my knitting group, Whiskyknitters, I listened as several women debated a recent article that has been making the internet rounds.  The article, written by a man, took on the topic of the three sexiest words a man can say to a woman.  “I Love You”?  Nope.  “You look beautiful?”  Not even close.  No, after speaking with his women friends he had figured out that the three words that tend to make a woman swoon are, “I Got This.”

My fellow Whiskyknitters are all confident, competent women but I watched with interest as each got a faraway, wistful look in her eyes as she contemplated these three little words.  Said one, “Look, I’m perfectly capable of doing whatever needs to be done, but if someone could occasionally step up and take something off my plate, well gosh.. I’d love that.”

    I polled other woman this week on the same issue and watched as each took on that same wistful stare when contemplating a man who would sometimes say to them, 

“Don’t worry.  I got this.”

We woman can do it all.  We can cook and clean, we can write and paint.  We can run businesses and countries.  We can care for children and aging parents.  We sing.  We dance.  We think.  We create.  We discover. One of use may even be the next president.  Our worth is equal to men in every way and should of course be valued as such.  But, as this article points out, there is a difference in masculine and feminine and I wonder if we may have occasionally ignored this in our effort to rise to our rightful place of equality. 

I would love to hear what you think. 

 I Got This. 

Do those three little words make you swoon?

“After all, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did,

 except she did it backwards and in high heels.”

Ann Richards

(Read the article for yourself, HERE, and let's talk.  
I promise to answer every comment on this post.)