Gender Impasse

Hi there. Here is another guest post for the month of May (and if you would still like to send one in, please do ... deadlines schmeadlines ...)

Michelle of Denmark wrote this little gem. 

Enjoy x

It was one of those rare and devastating impasses, all the more intense because of their infrequency.

She wanted more. He was quite content with things the way they were. It always, eventually, came to this. This time she was armed with more insight, she had read somewhere that for a man, woman is his emotional centre; but for woman, man is her spiritual centre.

He thinks: she is safe, financially and emotionally comfortable, sexually satisfied, I love her - what more is there?

She thinks: I have everything except the one thing I crave above all else. She has learnt that she can't get it from him and that she has no right to ask. She challenges him anyway: 'Well that's it then, there's the wall. We can't get past it'.

 She watches him reinforce the wall, sees terror in his eyes, the guillotine blade fall as he withdraws behind it, shuts down and retreats. She begs him not to go, to try and find a way through. But it is too late.

He has looked into the dark mirror, seen his own reflection and knows, if he steps across, what he must do. He is too afraid, terrified of what he will find. She watches him go, not angry, just so very sad. She knows why he must run - he just can't go there. For him, at this time, it is the right decision. But one day, with or without her, he will have to face that reflection and not look away. And she may not be there to help him through.

(Image: Rui Tenreiri)