The secret to longevity depends on who you ask. People who have actually made it to an advanced age will credit alcohol or no alcohol, sex or no sex, red meat or no red meat, whatever or not-whatever. Jessie Gallan, age 109, credits her advanced age to porridge and avoidance of men. While these items may, in fact, have allowed her to live well past 100, other women may contend that they, personally, would have happily given up a couple decades of life before they would have given up sex or male companionship. The other item, porridge, is still being debated. Now back to men.
Jessie has apparently lived a full and happy life without the presence of a man. So, what, exactly, are men good for, aside from sex and keeping track of one’s car maintenance schedule? Since the extinction of the mammoth and the subsequent rise of male politicians, many people are wondering exactly that. Life in the Boomer Lane has answers.
1. Men like to be on top Most women, when they reach a certain age, realize that the image of their faces, when they look down into a mirrored counter or answer their Face Time calls with their heads down, is not the most pleasant of sights. In fact it probably ranks a close second to what people looked like in the final stages of the plague. For this reason, any observant woman should be very grateful that her sexual partner remains mostly on top, and allows her to stop fretting about her jowls obliterating the rest of her face.
2. Men see us differently than we see ourselves Women’s brains go into full tilt boogie overdrive when they see other women. Is she pretty? Does she dress well? Has she had cosmetic surgery? Is her hair attractive? The list goes on and on. Men look at woman differently. If she has a head and a body, she qualifies.
3. Men are very patient when we shop for clothes This is because they are either sitting in the store in a coma, or sitting outside having sunstroke. Either way, we get to shop.
4. Men love commitment This is manifested when their team is having the longest losing streak in history and they still watch every single game.
5. Men love us exactly the way we are As women we are always obsessing about losing weight, finding another hair stylist and/or hairstyle and/or hair color, tossing all our clothes and starting over, getting better make up, having cosmetic surgery, etc. We needn’t worry. See #3.
6. Men have total ability to remember our birthdays, anniversaries, and every single other bit of important information about us. We simply have to declare ourselves a sports team.
7. Men have hair in places we don’t Or rather, in places where we get rid of it. It’s nice to see that, on them, it looks good.
8. Men only half-listen to us Since a lot of what we say is stream of consciousness, it’s often just the act of speaking that makes us feel better. If we had someone really listening to us and constantly interrupting us and asking questions, it would take forever to get things off our chests. Then, later we’d be asked why, if we said blah/blah/blah, we did blah/blah/blah. Much easier to have someone listen in a half-assed way and allow us to go about our business.
9. Men are easy, in the most important way See #3.
10. Since lists of 10 are always good, you may fill this one in by yourself. If you can’t think of anything, repeat #9.
reneferret1
January 26, 2015
thanks for your insights i really enjoyed it 🙂
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
You are welcome. My insights are unlimited, free, and above reproach.
reneferret1
January 26, 2015
Reblogged this on reneferretsays.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Thanks for the reblog, Rene!
Chris White
January 26, 2015
My new year’s resolution was not to let anything a woman said confuse me. My second resolution was to ignore the first one. On the subject of longevity. I owe mine to … not yet being dead. When I am dead I will blame it on my own male stupidity.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
You are a wise man, Chris. I also ascribe to the belief that longevity is due solely to not being dead.
PrairieChat
January 26, 2015
I’m sorry, I was only half listening. Did you mention sex?
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Laughing. Yes. The words word is magic for blog stats. I may start titling all of my posts “Sex.”
Kate Crimmins
January 26, 2015
The worst part of this post is that it’s all true! Excuse me, I have to figure out my sports team name. Maybe I’ll have tee-shirts made.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Now, that’s a great idea. I could totally get on board with entire sports wardrobes.
btg5885
January 26, 2015
Too funny. As an imperfect man (yes I know that is redundant), let me add a few more to your wonderful list. Many of us can reach the top shelf without a step stool. Given a few seconds and the handle of a knife, we can open pickle jars. While we have to be occasionally reminded, we will take the garbage to the curb. That and the car maintenance schedule should get us a few brownie points.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
BTG, men are good for so much more. Now Husband is also good at sleuthing, as in “Who spilled something on the counter?” “Who finished the ice cream?” “Who forgot to lock the back door?” I’m always amazing at his powers of deduction.
btg5885
January 27, 2015
Bil Keane has told us in his comic strip “Family Circus” that the ghost named “Not Me” did all those things.
ldsrr91
January 26, 2015
My wife says I never listen to her, or something like that, I am not sure. When I saw the title to this post, the first thing I thought of was an old song … War, what is it good for, absolutely nuthin’ Which of course kind of dates me. Be sympathetic, we (men) just don’t get it.
Nice post.
DS
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Thanks, and great comment. Of course, you are being hard on yourself. War has done more to forward technology than anything else has.
curtmacdougall
January 26, 2015
To answer your original question, opening jars and killing bugs seem to be our main functions.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Now Husband kills bugs by liberally spraying the entire room. I am always convinced our life expediencies are not much longer than the bug.
Paula J Wray
January 27, 2015
You explained it perfectly.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 27, 2015
Thanks, Paula. My goal, as always, is perfection. Of course, the world rarely agrees.
Puffetic
January 27, 2015
Having a mental age of 185, I attribute my longevity to reading depressing news stories and carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
But when I thought about what are men good for, I could only think back to previous assessments from others… that as a man, I was helping to consume valuable oxygen. In hindsight, I’m not sure it was a compliment.