Wapman

Not theatre as we know it Jim.
Ah, the world of Am Dram.
Actually, I'm able to see quite how complicated putting together even an amateur production is. No, good Lord, not me, I'm not trying to do so gargantuan a task, but I'm helping out as prompt with the church play.
You might be forgiven for thinking that someone who had taught in secondary schools for so many years might know this, but alas, all I used to see was the disruption to lessons, the over-active egos and the rather unimpressive end product.

This morning was the celebration of All Saints' day in church. Many churches have the custom of compiling a list of departed friends and rellies of the congregants, ours limits it to those who have passed since last All Saints'. I put our friend Bruce on the list, because he was important to me and to a group of people who are in turn important to me. And yet I feel kind of like I'm not honouring his memory because he didn't believe. On the other hand, he might now be feeling a little confused and wondering why physics didn't explain this.

All of my children have Christmas tree decorations engraved with their names that my friend Dawn had sent over the years. I was quite touched that my daughter wanted me to send her one for her boyfriend Seth so that he had one too, and that she knew exactly where I could get this in town, which was just as well because I wouldn't have known where to start. I have it as instructed, now if only I had an address to send it to....

Over the past week, I have had one of my questions answered, but it has given rise to another. Sometimes I feel I'm a lone little feminist voice, whining on about the patriarchy. I wondered if there were other feminists within shouting distance. Ans the answer came loud and clear. Yes. My own friends. Why was I not seeing or hearing this? I don't know. But I am far from alone.
But now, not being prepared to be a guy, what do we call ourselves? Girls, gals, ladies, women? It's hard to find a term that all agree on. One friend objects to being called a lady, and yet there's nothing derogatory about calling a man a gentleman.
Most of the time, to be honest, any term is a filler. 'You guys' is often used when the speaker just means 'you'.
There was an interesting comment on a feminist blog I was reading last week. The commentator said that originally, English had had the term 'wapman' which meant the male of 'man' just as 'woman' means the female of man. But as so often happens, the term for the whole species has been hijacked to mean the male. I haven't been able to confirm this by googling however, since 'wapman' seems to be some kind of electronics company or device.

Perhaps I'll have to make something up.