Men, women and three stories
I return to my occasional subject of men, women and marriage, earthly mirror of Christ and the church, that great mystery. I do it with diffidence. I cannot say I understand the mystery from either side. The heavenly mystery of the church as Christ's bride is difficult to understand. It could be I do not quite understand the earthly and commonplace side of it either. Women can be confusing to men: I expect that to pass muster as a self-evident proposition. When I do not understand something, storytelling may be more helpful to me than logical exposition. Here are some stories that seem cogent. The knight Fairhands (Beaumains) and Lady Linet From Malory's Arthur, the story of a knight assigned to serve and protect a woman who thinks he does nothing right. She nags and belittles and says King Arthur should have assigned her a better knight. He succeeds in his quest anyway, and weds her more appreciative sister, the noblewoman on whose behalf the nagging sister sought hel