Scenerio 1 – He is walking steadily down the pathway, the phone beeps, it’s a text message! He makes a sudden and abrupt stop that makes you pause as well wondering what lies ahead, only for you to realize that he has stopped to reply to a text message.
Scenerio 2 – Wife and hubby are having dinner together while catching up on the day’s events.
Wife: Babe do you remember the mall I was talking to you about, where we found these cute clothes for the babies?
Hubby: Yes of course I remember, honey.
Wife: So I found an even cheaper place with a bigger variety, can you take me there this weekend?
Hubby: Yes, sure. Organise yourself and let me know, when as I am pretty free.
Wife: At work today, we had a meeting and guess what, I could be coming up for a promotion soon.
Hubby: Great.
Wife: Babe, aren’t you happy for me?
Hubby: But I am always happy for you! – he suddenly turns to her, looking at her blankly
Well, well, well. We can both tell this will not end well. She is angry, is he guilty? She quickly moved from shopping, to work promotion and woe unto him, he didn’t catch up in time.
I learnt that men think in boxes while women think like a ball of wire. A man has a box for every single thing and the boxes cannot be mixed. It is a box, a time (a specific stream of thought), finish with it, seal it then move on to the next one. As women, the ball of wire is full of streams of thoughts all running at the same time. We can handle a million thoughts and still be “present” with you. That is why we wonder, like why do you need to stop to read a text? Why?
I also recently learnt that men have what is called a ‘Nothing Box’ and that it is the men’s favourite box. Imagine? Apparently, given a choice, a man would rather stay in this ‘nothing box’ than venture out. How true is this and does it really contain nothing? Do share your thoughts. To get a male perspective on this, please check out my colleague Mitchell’s post HERE
