Trade Secrets

While visiting my family the other day, I mentioned to my mother that perhaps twelve hours was too few. She said,

"Well, Tim's going to be really busy, and when your husband is busier, you get busier so you just have to..."

Joel walked into the room and remarked, "Oooh! letting me in on the trade secrets, eh?!"



Speaking of trade secrets, I've been reading a book lately. It isn't a fun read, but I'm glad I'm doing it. It covers a subject I've been trying to figure out on my own for the past year or so. I feel that it's put my thoughts into words, and has given me more situations and opportunities to apply it to.

The book is called Love and Respect and it does a fairly good job of summing up the main problem in male/female communication (while admitting it probably isn't the ONLY problem).



It states that women need to feel loved most of all, an obvious need that's no surprise. It says that men need to feel respected above all else. I feel I would have to disagree with the choice of the word "respect" but the author is right. Men feel loved by feeling valued as a person, and trusted to do the right thing in a situation.

Most problems are centered around men doing things that women percieve as unloving, and women doing things that men percieve as disrespectful. Basically, each gender needs to think about what they are doing that could be offensive, and work it out with two big scoops of understanding!