International People Day

I thought I would take a detour from chronicling the Florida adventure, yesterday was International Women’s Day, I have some thoughts on that.

I am all for celebrating women, sisterhood, girl power or whatever you would like to call it. The women who have shaped my life are nothing short of amazing, from my grandmother to my mother, aunts, cousins, close family friends and my friends.

I have to wonder why we don’t see the same posts on International Men’s Day. Does anyone know when that is without googling it? I didn’t. I had to google it, let’s face it, in today’s society men are getting a bad rap.

Men are all painted with the same brush, if they are too masculine they are processed under toxic masculinity. Metro-sexual? Too girly, not tough enough, they really can’t win. Too nerdy? Too brainy? They are loners and labeled losers.

It is a sad society we live in when all people are not celebrated. Men and women and all of our glorious differences.

I have both a daughter and two sons, I celebrate all of their differences. I have sons who work in very masculine fields, the automotive industry, they are very much men. Yet they have a nerdy side, an intellectual side and nurturing side. They are well-rounded, but from an outsider looking in, they are filled with “toxic” masculinity.

I seriously hate that term, I, for one, like men who hunt, work with their hands and who can also talk about Star Wars, Star Trek, comic book heroes and mythology.

The most important thing for a man or woman to be is themselves. Who God made them to be, whether that is a geek, nerd, mechanic, doctor, lawyer, landscapers, CEO, whatever they become in their chosen careers, celebrate them.

Look at a person’s soul, their innate goodness, their belief in God. That is what we should be celebrating, we should be together on this earth, not working against each other. Not marching against each other, not throwing barbs at each other, embrace our differences.

I would suggest this one thing, this week, have a conversation with someone you think you have nothing in common with. I do believe you will find you have more in common than in difference.

If you are a white-collar worker, find a blue-collar one, shake their hand, thank your mechanic for keeping your car running. Thank your plumber for keeping your pipes working. Thank your tech support person for keeping your network networking.

We all are valuable in the greater good of society, stop pretending certain work is more valuable than others. If we all coalesced and worked together how much better would we all be.

Any questions, comments or criticisms can be left here or sent to me at angie@angieworld.com. Oh and if they are mean-spirited or insulting, please remember this is Angie World and I do have the final say on what is published here. It is a monarchy, not a democracy or constitutional republic.