Men are from the Garage

After one simple email broadcast to my/our biggest fans, I got this response from my sister: Topic suggestion that is on my mind this week: How men and women communicate differently (more Men are from Mars and Women from Venus type stuff) and why are they different?

Wow! That is a pretty heavy subject for me, but something tells me that Jack could write a book on it without blinking an eye. On that note, I worry that I might not get in a word once he gets started so I’m going to go first. It is going to be interesting to see how we work together after all our bragging!

I can only generalize about the men/women communication gap or talk about my own experiences. I don’t think men and women are really all that different in what they have to say; it’s more in the way they say it. In my way of thinking men are not from Mars as much as they are from the garage. And Venusian women are really just from the land of pots and pans, i.e. the kitchen, not another far off planet.

For example, a man’s hands are made to function in a world of wrenches, drills and screwdrivers. I think this is a genetic thing, because of the simple fact that try as I might, I cannot get a flathead screwdriver to fit and stay in the slot of even a large screw (Let’s don’t even think about a Philip’s head screw). And don’t talk to me about electric screwdrivers because, to my way of thinking, they are useless. They just speed up the fumbling process and add a bit of a masculine buzz while doing it. I find it very frustrating that I can turn the tool over to Jack and biff, boom, bam, he has the dang thing screwed in. It's in the genes(jeans) I'm sure.

On the other hand, I can whip up a blender Hollandaise sauce in 3 minutes flat. I can dismantle the blender, remove the working parts, have it all cleaned and put back together, including putting the rubber gasket on the right side of the spinner so nothing leaks out the bottom, before Jack can say, “Darling, where’s the butter?” (which is naturally, right there in front of him on the refrigerator shelf, but oh, he’s looking in the cookie cupboard!)

I’m not saying men can’t do intricate work. They may not be able to make petit fours (pastry chefs of the world please forgive this gross generalization) but they can take apart and repair car engines. They can scale and gut a rainbow trout leaving nothing but pretty little boneless fillets. I think, the difference lies in the fact that men aren’t afraid of a little muck. The more grease, oil, guts, mud, or stinky stuff, the happier men seem to be. Women on the other hand like their work to be clean and orderly (except when making Christmas cookies when it is virtually impossible to keep the flour and sugar inside the confines of the mixing bowls.)

Another difference I have encountered between the garage and the kitchen is that men aren’t prone to work in groups; thus the lack of communication skills. They grab a beer and set to work with no noise other than the buzzing of the aforementioned tools – unless maybe it’s a ballgame on the radio. They go to their inner netherlands and get lost in the task at hand.

Women, however, love to work in community. All of us with double x chromosomes know it’s easier and more fun to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people, than it is to make your ordinary Thursday night spaghetti meal alone, if there are a lot of female relatives around to share the work. The more the merrier! The work is there regardless of how many you have to feed, but it’s the sisterhood that makes the working fun. Communication comes in the form of straining the lumpy gravy, baking the biscuits, sharing the wine and everyone remembering not to put the potato peels in the disposal. Not to mention the laughing, crying and remembering.

So, Linda Lou, have I answered your question? Let’s see what the man has to say about it. Take it away Jack.

me