He Said, She Said

After a hiatus from writing in this blog, I have stored up ample ideas to write about.

Today I went hiking with my children and two of the neighbor's kids through the woods up the street from our house. The boys raced ahead of us pretending to be fighters and ninjas hiding in the forest. The two and four year old girls and I arrived later and kept a slower pace observing the wildlife as we quietly walked through the tall trees towering over us. The four year old, Addie, decided to be the leader for a moment in time and motioned to us,
"Come on guys! Let's go this way," she said several times.

I couldn't help but notice that as I looked at my daughter, then at myself and at her I felt drawn to say, "what guys?"

Do you ever notice that whether it is a woman, man, animal, object or insect it is always referred to "guy" or "he"? I do appreciate the male gender, and I highly respect the female gender. Gender equality is one of the UN Millennium Goals. How about starting with how we recognize each living thing and once in a while refer to the cow or the horse as a "she". Or if there are group of women as "ladies".

I think we are due for a shift in our global consciousness. Take your turn and make sure both sexes are accounted for in your words, the children will notice the difference too.