The guy and the girl,
the left and the righ

Women must be a very interesting subject. I did not quite expect the reaction I got from my previous column last week. Because of that, may I be allowed to dwell on the subject a little bit more:

I had the privilege of attending a "modified debate" at the Northside Baptist Church last Sunday on the battle of the sexes. We got some very interesting facts and data from the women side of the debate, and from Lizel Lofranco (one of the judges).

Among such information, we learned that:

Men have four percent more brain cells than women, and about 100 grams more brain tissue. Yehey! But to which women reply, why do men need more brain tissue in order to get the same things done by women? Ha!ha! That is a good one.

And while men have larger brains than women, women have more connectors between their left and right brains than men. Result: they are more capable of multi-tasking, better in language, more in touch with their feelings, better at relationships. But because there is not as many connectors between the left and right sides of a man's brain (he tends to use his left brain more), men are not as verbal, they tend only to focus on the facts at hand, and can't watch the kids and read the paper at the same time.

In the matter of health, this left-right side brain arrangement is significant. If a woman suffers a stroke in the left side of the brain, she may still retain some language skills from her right brain. But if men have the same left-sided damage, they are less likely to recover as fully.

An observation was also raised on the fact that in Genesis, God said "it is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). This is the first and only time in creation that God said that something was "not good". All the other time he said "Good!", and after he made woman, he said "Very good!". (Gen. 1:27, 31). But when he looked at man at that one time, he said "Not good!" (that is, it is not good for man to be alone).

It appears, therefore, that woman is a more complete creature than man. Woman can stand celibacy better than man. She can survive widowhood much, much better than man. If a man becomes a widower, he either has a girlfriend or remarries in as fast as a year or two. If a woman becomes a widow, she can live the rest of her life happy and contended in her aloneness, attending to the children, and home and profession and property and other things, without as much problem or difficulty as men.

Yet, the men in that modified debate made a point. Women are not supposed to compete with men, but to complement. So the men practically conceded or yielded the arguments that women are better in this and that, by saying in essence that it does not matter. We need you, and you need us. So having thus peacefully surrendered, the debate ended in peace. (It is only when men surrender to women that things end in peace.)

And so live and let live.

***

I had the privilege of speaking at the graduation exercises of Mansilingan Agro Industrial High School, (where, I found out in its souvenir program, that hard-hitting and analytical Bombo commentator Sammy Nuarbe graduated in the late 80's as class valedictorian!).

What was very touching about the exercises was how the whole affair was studded with stories and cases of children of the poor excelling in education by dint of hard work. A special award was given by a private organization to a girl who was not even an honors graduate, but for simply continuing to study when extreme poverty demanded of her to just stop. She was a daughter of a junk shop worker. Yet she plodded on and finished and she was given an award simply for that, just for keeping on. There were many tears among her classmates yesterday.

And my, was that an emotional speech of the class valedictorian! Against all odds!

And the salutatorian and the first honorable mention, who were the best of friends. It was the first honorable mention who should have been salutatorian because of her grades, but she was overtaken by her friend who became salutatorian because of her points in extra-curricular activities. When the friend heard it, she said to her friend, "No, I should not be salutatorian, it should be you!", to which her friend replied, "No, you deserve it because you worked so hard!", and so they just had a teary embrace there when the honors were called out.

(By the way, all their honors graduates were girls, see?)

And then when they sang at the end, "Farewell to you my friend, we'll see each other again, don't cry because it's not the end of everything, I maybe miles away, but here is where my heart will stay, with you my friend, with you", the whole house was practically in tears, except of course for the boys, who, if you remember, do not have many connectors between their left and right brains. Well, they threw their caps in the air with a yelp, and that somehow broke the melodrama.

Oh well, whataday.

Congratulations, graduates, and may, by the grace of God, our passing through and ending will be much better than our beginnings!*