Watertown Weekend: After the Play

After dinner, we headed to the play. Candice and I rode with Jonathan and Leeanna, and later Candice told me that she spied FLOWERS in the front seat! Hmm, it was a “date” after all!

The play! The play! The play (The Importance of Being Earnest) was EXCELLENT! We had the BEST seats in the house! Literally, front and center! The only way we could have been closer would have been if we were actually ON the stage.

The actors did a phenomenal job of getting lost in their characters, and the whole thing flew by in record time!

During intermission, I saw some familiar faces. My old drama teacher, Mrs. Traum and her husband had come up for the play. I also saw Pastor and Kay Walton (from Memorial Baptist Church). They were there because their daughter was one of the principal actors in the play – and did a great job, I might add!

Driving home after the play was an adventure! Jonathan and Leeanna had plans afterwards, so Candice and I had to pile in the car with Uncle Darryl, Aunt Jan, Mom, AND Aunt Linda! There were six of us, not particularly skinny people, stuffed into this ridiculously tiny car!

We kept joking that Uncle Darryl was going to get a reputation – driving around with five women in his car!

When we got back to Aunt Jan’s, we had popcorn, ice cream, tea, and played Apples to Apples. Even Uncle Darryl played! It was fun, and (of course) yours truly WON!

We were all pretty exhausted, so we went to bed around 11 p.m. Mom and Aunt Linda shared the “real” bed in one room, and Candice and I slept on twin bed mattresses on the floor in another room.

I tried to talk to her, but she was pretty much out as soon as her head hit the pillow. So, I just worked out some story details in my head, and the next thing I knew – it was morning!

Well, it was only 6:00 a.m., so I figured no one else would be up yet. Thankfully, Aunt Jan had put us in a room with a bookcase, so I started perusing my choices.

I noticed that she had John MacArthur’s new book – Twelve Extraordinary Women. Our church women’s group is currently studying that book, but it’s on a night I can’t be there. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to look it over. I’d kind of been thinking about buying it.

Well, turns out that it wasn’t such a good idea. I got hot under the collar just reading the preface to the book. I now have to refer to the author as John MacSexist in my own mind! I found his phraseology discussing women to be extremely condescending and overtly sexist. I don’t think he was TRYING to be intentionally sexist, but YUCK!

He talked about “feminine excellence.” Okay, first of all, what would a man know about feminine excellence? Secondly, that sounds like a commercial for sanitary “napkins.” Thirdly, have you ever heard of “manly excellence?” Who comes up with this stuff?

He also talked about how feminism and egalitarianism have destroyed women. He said that women aren’t “special” anymore. Yeah, well, the Muslim men seem to think their women are pretty “special” too, and they live in an oppressed and male dominated world. You know what? I’m okay not being so special.

He went on to say how women’s roles are defined by creation – to give birth and nurture the little ones. Okay, so what does a barren person like myself have to do to discover her freakin’ “role?” Are we useless if we can’t bear children? According to the preface of this book – pretty much.

He also bemoaned that women are being integrated into society - that we are “forced” to be on the front lines, into doing physical work, and harassed daily at the workplace.

Well, there are brave women who want to serve their country on the front lines. There are strong women who live to do physical work. As for harassment in the workplace, do you know what happens, Mr. MacArthur? They get sent to jail. That’s what happens.

So, let’s crawl out from the rock we’ve been living under for the past fifty years and get with the program. Women can do great things. They are special and capable, and they don’t need YOU rushing to defend them against imaginary wrongs. Just write your profiles on Biblical women, okay? Please. Geesh.

So those few pages got me a little worked up! To calm down, I read Aunt Jan’s yearbook from Auburn High School in 19--. Very interesting! Very, very, interesting!

By that time, Mom and Aunt Jan were up. We enjoyed zucchini and chocolate chip muffins along with English muffins and cream cheese – and tea – we always have to have tea! Oh wait, we had hot cocoa, too!

Eventually, Aunt Linda and Candice got up, and the four of us headed back towards home! We had a nice trip back, listening to Christmas carols in car and singing along occasionally.

All in all, it was a truly wonderful trip!

Thanks to Aunt Jan and Uncle Darryl and Jonathan for putting up with the lot of us!