An ode to women

By George Davis

Is it never a good time to pay tribute to the woman? To acknowledge her strength, resilience, compassion, acute intelligence and ability to assimilate information from various, even conflicting sources, and yet be able to make a decision to which all abide with civility. Must men not applaud that ability of a woman to listen to every perspective in an argument and transmit a sense that individually, each party is the most important in the dispute?

Must man not pay homage to the manner in which a woman makes even the most run of-the-mill words assume awesome power, to the extent that when she whispers them to an individual, that person can immediately feel as lofty as a speck of colour on the back of a soaring white pigeon? Should man not pray a special prayer, daily to the Great Conceptualiser, entreating Him to sustain the woman, for only through her sustenance will this thing called life be what it was designed to be?

Must we not appreciate the nature of the woman to soothe the worst, most wretched bouts of pain with mere words? Must we not cherish her capacity to be lawyer, counsellor, accountant and healer, even where she has never sat for a day in a class to earn the professional qualifications attendant to these roles? Must we take for granted her disarming personality which, in the history of the world, has served on innumerable occasions to convince man not to wage war, pillage or commit murder?

WOMEN OF WONDERS

Must we be disbelieving of those who say that the story told in the Book of Matthew about the miracle performed by Jesus, when he used five loaves of bread and two fish to feed a crowd of 5,000, was influenced by the routine wonders of women of that time? Do we doubt that on top of taking the five loaves and two fish and praying to His Father, that Jesus, who by then was in his 30s, had seen a woman somewhere before, take scraps and fix a proper meal for a large family?

Should we not accept that this confidence in the ability of faith and conviction to turn little into plenty, as demonstrated by women previously, had convinced the Son of God that His Father would not find it taxing to stretch those rations into a feast for the hungry and sick? So there, on one of the greatest miracles performed by the man whom Christians would assert is the greatest miracle worker in the history of the world, are the imprints of God's greatest gift to men and to the world - woman.

Ask any man. How many times was he planning to embark on a path that, in hindsight, would have led to his injury or demise, only for a woman to save him? And how many times would he grapple with a major decision, pining over various permutations and complex outcomes, only for his eventual course of action to be determined by the simple intervention of a woman.

SIMPLY WISDOM

Of course, that's not to say that a woman's intervention is simplistic. It's to say that the counsel of a woman often appears to be such simple advice that the man will slap his forehead and ask why he never reasoned the matters in that way. That is not simplicity. It's simply wisdom. Wisdom from a man often takes on the tone of bluster.

It's almost like a game of cricket, where a man delivering words of wisdom appears to be bowling an effort ball, straining on delivery. For a woman, it's different. She bowls that ball with no discernible change in action. Same wisdom. Only, the woman makes it seem simple, easy.

The woman is such that we can speak much about her without mention or glorification of the peerless magnificence of her beauty. That, in itself, tells you how special she is. On behalf of real men everywhere, who know what we are about and know that men can't be women nor should men attempt to ape the behaviour of women, I salute the fairer sex. For in the context of all God's creations, the woman for me, as a man, is non pareil.

Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.