Continued

Like me, the kids liked horses. We ended up with our own little showjumping team. On the side we bought slow young race horses, trained them up, keeping the best & selling many for a profit, to cover the costs. We did it because we love horses, not to impress you or the neighbours.

I don't know what your Real Man of the West might be, but I do object to being placed in some meaningless box, filled with nonexistent types from your imagination.

I am man enough to not give a damn what any one else might think of me. I suppose I would be much better off financially, if I had tailored my activities to what would impress people with lots of money. I couldn't be bothered previously, & am not about to start now.

You will see more clearly, if you stop having the ideas that all men do things only for appearance or effect. The ones I know who do "things" do so because they want to experience those things. If they thought about it, they would realise some will be jealous, & some will think they are posing. Fortunately, they just don't think about it.

Hasbeen,

Well, I think you're right.....I don't understand men. Apparently I never have and never will.....

Voila!

Fancy finding that out at my age!

All of which probably goes some way to explain why I'm one of the few regular female contributors to this male saturated forum.....the reason being that I'm a female who doesn't understand men. For the most part, other women stay away in droves.

You learn something new every day : )

Well I guess that makes us equal Poirot, as I am no closer to understanding women, even after having raised a couple.

Isn't it common for people to adopt false personas on line? Who knows the true gender of each of us. Perhaps the Man of the West is really a Woman of the East...

Poirot, you wrote: .....I don't understand men. Apparently I never have and never will.....
Please don't let this worry you, it simply means you're normal. Men and women have never really understood what makes each other 'tick'. In a few cases this doesn't prevent genuine affection that allows them to overlook their spouse's idiosyncrasies, but most couples never get to that and live in a state of permanent semi war, or they divorce.
There seems to be no solution to this because everyone is what they are, despite themselves. people who love to rehearse plays for hours on end and act on stage, literally can't understand how anyone could practice cricket in the nets for hours on end and play the game... No one really understands anyone else - not even members of their own gender. Its the reason for societal rules of behaviour, speech and comportment - things we reject at the cost of social stability..
For what it's worth, I've usually found your posts rational, sensible and thoughtful - something that can't be said of many of the males.