AIR-CUSHION WIVES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3130, 14 August 1922, Page 2

AIR-CUSHION WIVES.

(By Mrs Patrick Mac Gill.)

"It's about lime thai a spoke was put into the wheel of the 'gentle, understanding' woman She's nothing, more than a vampire." The speaker was a woman of keen intelligence and discernment, and her remark was apropos' of her brother's wife. "John had the germ of greatness within him, and if he had married any other type of woman than one who, no matter what the occasion, could always he relied upon to 'understand,' he might have made his mark. As it is. he's nothing to -what he should have been, and it's all through his wife's fatal habit of 'understanding.' " The speaker finished with an angry shrug. "Hut surely a man does not want to come home to an argumentjvc, unsympathetic partner after a hard day's work?" I ventured to remark. "That's altogether different," was the reply. "I'm speaking about the type of woman who is content to be a kind of air cushion for her husband to lean upon every time the smallest difficulty presents itself, instead of trying to the utmost extent of her brain power to get to the heart of the trouble' and to hud a solution for it. "If, for example, a rival has secured a v much-coveted commission over the head of her husband, she will say softly, 'Poor boy! Its awfully hard fuck. 1 do so understand your disappointment, and I am sure there's favoritism somewhere ; so-and-so's work is not half as brilliant as yours.' " The "poor hoy" revels in the sootlv ing syrup, and, being clever, hut a little inclined to indolence, persuades himself that his wife's view is the correct one, and that it can't be helped, etc. The wife Avho was not quite so "understanding" would he more likely to point out that it might be profitable to study tba rival's methods to see if anything can be learned, since one can never be said to have finished in the school of experience. Undoubtedly, too much "understanding,'' call' it what you will, tends to clog the wheels of a man's progress. Does the stream that is not set with boulders make any music? • Some men there are who have bred in their bones and surging through their blood 1 the vital impulse: of attainment, and no amount of misplaced "understanding" will do more than temporarily disable these warriors. Hut a. great number cf good men need for their fullest development intelligent "mis-understanding" at times—it might act as a momentary irritant, but it will ultimately prove a splendid tonic—and w;yes who are in danger of becoming "air cushions" would do well to oecaisionally'put a cork in their overflowing cask of sympathy.