Proof That We’re Wired Differently

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God gave humans this innate ability to think, to sort out and process.   We rationalize.  As normal, sentient beings, we can employ logic and reason.  The amazing synaptic circuitry within our gray matter allows men and women to ponder pedantically, all kinds intricately complicated things such as nanotechnology, molecular pathology and the corpuscular theory of light. 

But women take that one step further. We have a tendency to over think the simplest things.  Mainly, matters of the heart.

We might be sitting in front of a wall adorned with framed degrees from institutions of higher learning around the world and we might be wearing a white lab coat, while peering intently through a microscope at the protozoa of some yet-to-be-named water born disease that’s killing thousands in Papua New Guinea, but at the same time, we’re thinking about the strange mood you were in last night…..  

…..and the name of the pair of surgically enhanced tits we’re convinced you’re obviously seeing behind our backs who’s creating this relationship chasm that we have no absolutely doubt is there. 

I know—we’re a draining, often frustrating people, we woman.

And even though I play for the offending team, this gender discrepancy can make my head spin.  Then I realize, we should be allowed the occasional mood because we’re entitled.  We’ve earned that right, through monthly cramps and bloating and the pain that is child-birth.  And why is that?  Because Eve ate the apple in spite of the snake’s warning?????   Metaphor or not,  we’re forced to deal with all the emotional and hormonal things with which our gender-specific physiology forces us to contend.  

Beyond that, why are we more insecure and prone to fits of panic and dread when it comes to the male of the species?  Why do we belabor the reasons why he likes us…or doesn’t like us.  Men fall in love;  we collapse….and why in God’s name can’t a man speak “Woman”???   When  a guy tells us, “I’ll call you later”, to him, that means withing a ‘reasonable’ amount of time–three to five days.   Nu-huh.  To us, “later”means he should call the minute he reaches the driver’s side door of his car parked outside.    For us, three minutes is a reasonable amount of time for “later”.   

I wish I could be more stoic and staunch when it comes to men. I ‘d love to be a woman who acts so cool, nonchalant and aloof about men and relationships.  And uh, the key word here is “act”, thank you very much.  And I say that because that’s what it is.  Any woman who says she doesn’t care is lying, has dated pilots and therefore, incapable of normal emotions or recently lobotomized.    Underneath that collected, über calm countenance, there lies a maelstrom of fear and self loathing generated by the fact that HE hasn’t called.  Trust me, I know.  

And why do we do this?  Because we’re hardwired to do this.  We entrust our identities to our relationships; they make or break us.   We allow men to validate our existences then we spend years paying the price for loving too much, too fast.

And what about these men we love too much and too fast?   Men are the lucky ones.  You are.   From my vantage point, you  have it so much better than we do.  Men (seemingly) live in a very uncomplicated world of black and white; of yes and no; of absolutes and virtually no middle ground.  You dwell in the land of emphatics.    On your legal tender is inscribed, “It is what it is” and you accept what it is and never question what isn’t.   I envy that you never have to ride this rickety unicycle of shame on a slippery slope while trying to juggle emotions that rear their unpredictable heads every 28 days and still look model thin and glossy fashion magazine pretty.  Not to mention feeling you know…..fresh.

We women not only question what it is, but if it ain’t there, we’ll by God create it.   We have a screwy manifest destiny thing going with love, our emotions and our imaginations.    Men don’t have this.   I envy you.  In fact, I’d hate you, but as a heterosexual woman, I’m oddly drawn to you.  So, therein lies the rough.

Still, the cold hard reality is that we’re different.  Men and women are completely different and we’re wired accordingly.   We think differently, act differently, love differently and if you don’t believe this, then take a look at the diary entries from a couple who’s been together four years.   Both are expressing their concerns over something that happened the night before. 

The difference is striking.

And sadly, true.

Her Diary:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn’t flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn’t say much. I asked him what was wrong; He said, ‘Nothing.’ I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn’t upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior I don’t know why he didn’t say, ‘I love you, too.’ When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.  He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent.  Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. To my surprise, he responded to my caress, and we made love. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep – I cried. I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. I’ll bet it’s that woman, Cheryl from Accounting.  I know he’s going to leave me, I know it.   I guess I’ll need to add “divorced woman” to my life’s resume.  My heart is broken.   My life is a total disaster!  

 
His Diary:

Boat engine wouldn’t start yesterday.  Can’t figure out why, but at least I got laid last night.

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And Man Made Something Amazing…

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I am the reigning queen of a very cynical world. 

Just this morning, I woke up thinking that there has to be more to this than the hand Iv’e been dealt, but what?   Just the night before, I stood in my kitchen….salmon searing in a pan on the stove and I wondered, which wine goes with boredom?   Then, I shook it off, admonishing myself for my brief dalliance with self-loathing.  The reality is, I’ve been fortunate to see many wonderful places and things.  I’ve had an enviable career that’s exposed to me wonders and at times, certain levels of debauchery that humans (much less woman) should ever see.   

So, no, I don’t always hold out hope for us, the incredibly fragile two legged entities who comprise the human race.   But every once in a while, I’m reminded that there is evidence of tremendous brilliance at work in the world.  Now, the depth of that only translates positively if said brilliance is playing for your team.  Fortunately, for Americans and everyone who fought in our corner during the last world war,  chalk one up for us.    

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I received an email recently that contained the photos you are about to see.  I’d never before heard the story behind them, but it’s interesting one and proof that there is such a beast as ‘Yankee ingenuity”.    It served us well against the Red Coats and Hessians during the Revolutionary War.   As a Southerner, I hate to admit that it helped defeat the “rebel hun” in the Civil War and it was intended to do the same thing during World War II, had Japan had the temerity to attack California.    

There was an uneasiness all along the West coast during the war, especially when the U.S. entered the Pacific Theater.    True, the actual war was being fought several thousand miles away, but with the advent of submarines and battle ships that can stay at sea for weeks, and fighter planes that can take off from aircraft carriers, the distance could be easier and quicker to broach.    People on the West Coast panicked and understandably so.    We had en enormous amount of industrial suppliers and manufacturers located all along the West Coast.   We’re talking munitions plants, oil and gas concerns,  shipyards with battle vessels either docked or under construction and then of course, there were the airplane factories.   Vital airplane factories.  You see, World War II saw conventional battle go from land and sea to the air.   Aircraft was key.    

This is the B-17 “Flying Fortress”

 

And the Lockheed aircraft plant located in Burbank back in the 40′s was one that was vital to American defense.  It hired hundreds of men and woman and helped the area’s economy in untold ways.    

But not only that, it helped us wage war and ultimately win it.   All told, Lockheed produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six-percent of those produced in the war. This included  2,600 Venturas, 2,750 B-17 Flying Fortresses (built under license from Boeing and certainly one of the most famous aircraft the flew in air battles in World War II).   

The “Yippee” 

 

Additionally,  2,900 Hudsons were built  and 9,000 Lightnings also known as “The Yippee”.  I’m assuming because it was fun to fly???    

 I’ve not a clue.    

As far as “The Yippee” is concerned though, it was Lockheed’s answer to a specific military request for an interceptor.   The P-38 Lightning fighter plane, was a somewhat unorthodox twin-engine, twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only U.S. fighter design to be built for the entire duration of the war. It filled ground attack, air-to-air, and even strategic bombing roles in all theaters of the war in which the United States operated. The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Force type during the war; and is particularly famous for being the airplane that shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s airplane.   

So, as you can imagine, the Lockheed plant in Burbank was very important to national defense and it had to be kept safe from a domestic attack by the enemy.  If that were to happen, the West Coast and certainly, bases and factories located there would be first in a Japanese Zero’s crosshairs.       

But, perhaps the plants proximity to Hollywood, the place where illusion meets reality but ONLY as it pertains to fantasy, was the impetus behind what the brain trust at Lockheed did to guarantee the plant’s safety and secrecy.  This is an aerial view of the Lockheed plant.   

   

And this is Lockheed after the Army Corp of Engineers morphed into set designers and magicians to perform one of the biggest vanishing acts in history:  they made Lockheed disappear.   

    

Yes, that’s the same place.  The plant is there, it’s just that this aerial photo is the Lockheed plant completely hidden under a camouflage tarp and netting to fool enemy aerial reconnaissance.     

The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarp painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles. Hundreds of fake trees, shrubs, buildings and even fire hydrants were positioned to give a three-dimensional appearance.     

The trees and shrubs were created from chicken wire treated with an adhesive and covered with feathers to give the impression of a leafy texture.   

   

Underneath the netting, it was business as usual.   

    

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As it turned out, the precaution was all for naught, but in wartime, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.   The Japanese did attack, but that occurred on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, the United State’s deep-water naval base on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii.    The continental United States wasn’t attacked.  

No, that would happen 60-years later on a bright, but balmy September morning on another island…..called Manhattan.

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