I have noticed at yoga that there is a bit of a pattern. The women are flexible and not so strong, while the men are strong and rarely flexible. Upon reflection, this seems to me to be generally true of men and women in life.
In the old days when we were all actually fighting for survival, this would have been the basis for a clear and sensible division of labour. The men did the work that ensured the physical survival of the family - providing shelter and food - while the women performed the mental and emotional gymnastics necessary to provide the social, spiritual and emotional succour.
This interdependence made eminent sense. Everyone knew their role and mostly women and men stuck to their socially prescribed roles.
But things have now changed. Physical survival is no longer our motive or goal. In modern Western democracies survival is almost a given. We all have the means, or access to the means (even if it is by government subsidy), to survive.
So what’s left over after that? Now that we no longer have to spend the vast majority of the day fighting to live another day, what do we do with all that time and energy? Clearly many people have just unwittingly, or maybe consciously, shifted the goal posts. Where we once worked to put food on the table we now work to have nicer food, on a more beautiful table, in a larger, fully loaded house.
Accumulating stuff has almost become our raison d’être. The fact that storage companies are one of our fastest growing industries as well the proliferation of television shows dedicated to the phenomenon of hoarding suggest that something is out of balance. And where there is imbalance, there is suffering.
So what is the 21st century approach to life? If we don’t need to worry about survival, we have the privilege to create the life we desire, as opposed to the one we need just to get by.
Further if we do not have to rely on someone else to play a key role in our life strategy, if we are equipped with the freedom and opportunity to independently circumscribe the conditions of our own life then it now seems logical that we all integrate the masculine strength with the feminine flexibility within ourselves so that we are better able to function competently and healthily in every aspect of our life.
If we are to be the captains of our own desire then we need all the tools, skills and aptitudes that we once accepted were province of only one sex or the other.
The time for this is now here. Wholeness and balance are the non-negotiables in the new age. 2012 is the threshold of this new age and it is incumbent on all of us to find the balance that will enable us to spiritually thrive. Everything else, including our heart’s desire, will follow.
