On the day my essay ("MEN!!!") was published on the KIC blog, I also posted it to my Keeping It Catholic email list (at Yahoogroups).
In response to that essay, Syler Womack, the very lady whom I mentioned in that piece (as author of The Catholic Code of Chivalry), wrote a wonderful composition of her own.
With her permission, it is posted here as a fantastic follow-up to "MEN!!" To openly borrow from Syler's signature line, our mutual message comes from the not-yet-crowned-king Aragorn in the move version of The Return of the King:
"I Bid You Stand, Men of the West!"
Well, it's sure not going to surprise you when I concur with you 100%...and you hit the nail square on the head when you said our men are, for the most part, no longer chivalrous. How BLESSED are those of us who have real men for husbands! We are far too busy basking in their love and making their homes to embrace any sort of feminist behavior. Invading the realm of men is in no way appealing, for we are too joyful to be Catholic Wives!
So, here's my word to those Trad Men who spend all their time worrying and writing about women:
Fellows, you need to remember your place!
Your place is at the head of your family---not as a tyrant, but as a provider and protector and one who cherishes his mate above all earthly things. Your place is to make your wife realize that she is the Queen of your world. She is your Guenivere--- your Isolde---your Dulcinaea. She has sacrificed her health and strength to bear you fine sons and daughters. Do you realize how many times the fate of nations has turned on the ability of a Queen to bear sons? If your wife has borne you one, or several, you should fairly weep with gratitude every time you think of her! If she has mothered adopted sons, why, she is even more to be exalted! If she has been open to life, she has been willing to sacrifice her own life so that YOU can have heirs! Do you thank her for it? Do you respect her for it?
Your home is your wife's World. She desires nothing more than to make it a haven for you and your heirs. Do you ever see what she does? Do you ever thank her for the meals she cooks for you? For the patience with which she plans and executes thankless jobs every day? For the fact that she daily cleans your filth off the bathroom porcelain? or do you only see when she fails to live up to perfection?
You complain about Feminism, and Feminism IS the oldest and most deadly heresy---but it is a heresy which is made possible not by women but by MEN. Your failure to honor her womanly accomplishments, your habit of taking her for granted---these are the things which have driven her out of her home, out of her realm and into situations which mock her and all women. She receives no appreciation from you, so she seeks appreciation in false venues. She feels like a thankless drudge at home, but she can be center stage as a eucharistic minister---and then, to make matters worse, you casually abdicate your responsibilities and allow her to take over because it's so much easier on you! Your sons see it, and it's fine with them for their sisters to take over their responsibilities on the altar.
Shame on you! You have forgotten how to be men. You have forgotten to thank God constantly for this wonderful gift of a loving wife! You have failed to cherish her. Ah, but you can still find time to write critical tracts about her behavior! Step away from the computer and go love your wife! No, you won't receive adulation from all the other sour-faced fellows who browbeat their wives with your accusations, but you may just become the man you should be, and that will pave the way for your wife and children to be as they should be, too. Your place is at the head of your family, not in the bully pulpit. Get back to your place, and stay there!
Syler Womack
"By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men
of the West!" ~King Aragorn
