the_keepers_of_heart_and_hearth dafremen Upon close and thorough examination, the penultimate evolutionary outcome of gender relations is practically certain. What's much less clear is whether we've ever actually made it to that point (and managed to mess it up), or whether we've never actually achieved it and are currently in process. (Or possibly even endlessly engaged in advancing a bit, then giving up whatever progress we make, so as to make circles seem like progress over the span of many generations.) It's hard to say either way, although I suspect that we are currently experiencing the burps, bubbles, gasps and hiccups of a species climbing up out of an existential mud that less egocentric animals don't struggle as much with. And what is this "evolutionary outcome of gender relations", you might ask? Well, one way of describing it, is as the formation of a nursery for long term spiritual development. Our mission is very much to cobble what we came from into what we are becoming. In old speak it might be called: the quest to transform men and women into gentleman and ladies. It's difficult to imagine the process without first acknowledging that human endeavor (and struggle) happen on both a material level and what we might call a "higher" or spiritual level. This can be seen as the stark contrast between poor, dirty faces scratching out a meal and a roof for their families, and those same faces surrounded by beautiful scenery, meditating on and moving toward the grander things of which humanity is capable: art, wisdom, enlightenment, compassion, love. These bodies and brains are what we have to explore this "emerging side" of us. We must sustain them. But be wary: the more we engage the material side of life, the more it will pull us back into our more primitive, animal mindset. The call of Earth's gravity is practically inescapable for a mind composed of her soil, particularly if that brain focuses too intently on other matter. The evolutionary process rewards progress. The ability to survive was made manifest by the ability to reproduce. The ability to survive and reproduce was improved by the ability to move. The ability to move was made more purposeful by the development of intellect. And here we are stumbling through the baby steps of yet another leap. It's a bit of a quandary: how to sustain ourselves materially without losing whatever progress we make on the spiritual/emotional front? (And of course, these days, how to do it without destroying the planet?) How does the evolutionary process ensure that we continue moving forward into our higher, better selves, rather than spinning our wheels in the mud of our material ancestry and its physical needs? Her answer was to divide the species up into two teams: the keepers of the heart and the keepers of the hearth. Here we should probably turn our attention to the very distinctive qualities that testosterone and estrogen produce in their respective recipients. However, before we do.. ..let's acknowledge that what is indicated by our current biological state is not necessarily what the fate of human gender relations hinges on. But let's also acknowledge that nature has done a much better job of making long term decisions than we have, so whatever we happen to be bickering about at any given time in history, is probably of little consequence in the grand, multi-billion year scheme of things. We can be replaced if we don't cooperate. Life goes on. 221211 ... daf see also: the_puzzle_that_is_you the_fetus_that_wanted_to_rule_the_world 221211 ... daf see also: the_trials_and_triumphs_of_mama_gator 221214 what's it to you? who go blather from