Writings by Diane

Last week at my Toastmasters club meeting, we ran out of time for Table Topics. This segment of the meeting is when a club member is assigned to give the other members questions so they can give an impromptu 1-2 speech on that topic. Typically, the questions are related to the theme of the meeting.  Naturally, the theme of the meeting was Valentine’s Day. It was offered that next week these Table Topics could be used. Then it was shared that may not be a good idea, since the questions related to romance and “lovey dovey” stuff. I said “It shouldn't matter if we do this next week. Do we only have one day that we can talk about love?!” I have been thinking about this the day after Valentine’s. How much emphasis is focused on this day that it has to be super romantic? What about the people without partners? Isn't it cruel to exclude them from a basic feeling such as love? Also, as I grow older, I’m not a huge fan of all of the paraphernalia that is sold during this day. Sure,...

With Valentine’s Day gone by, it reminded me how different boys and girls are raised when it comes to the love department.  For instance, I remember a woman at my work a few years ago stating that she told her daughter to leave boys alone because they are yucky! Now, since all of my children (biological and bonus) are boys, I was offended by this at first--my boys are the exact opposite of yucky! Then I realized she was trying to protect her daughter. Then again, here is a prime example of how we perpetrate the double standard. If the girls’ parents are telling her boys are yucky and boys’ parents are encouraging them to be polite and talk with girls, how are they ever going to communicate?! How is this ever going to work? I thought of an answer to her (years later, my timing is spot on!!) using the characters of King of the Hill (no wonder it was on for years!): “You know, not all boys are like Boomhauer , only looking to date as many women as possible. And not all are ...