Women Are Smarter Than Men

Women are Smarter Than Men


It was April of 1979; standing outside Anaheim stadium in California, shaking my head. I was taking a feeble first step toward understanding an indispensible lesson/life skill; a principle that is crucial to marital harmony/survival.

Women are smarter than men.

Grasping this concept was foundational to a long, mostly healthy, happy, and harmonious marriage. My wife Brenda and I were married in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. We drove across the prairies to Calgary to catch a flight to L.A. It was a wonderful trip, staying in a $15 hotel (No it was not one of those rent by the hour places), ate most of our meals at taco stands and ocean side sea food shops. Breakfast was served each day in our room; self serve, not room service. We called it romantic … my kids call it cheap.

One of the first things I checked upon arriving in California was the baseball schedule. Living in Saskatchewan, some 400 miles north of Montana, baseball was rarely on TV and going to a game was out of the question. I was more than excited to find out that the Angels were in town. I was positively ecstatic, as a Boston native, to see that they would be playing the Red Sox.

It was the very next day, I think, that we made our way down to the box office outside the stadium. My goal was to get the best seats possible, not knowing when this opportunity would come again. As I waited impatiently the line began to disperse and the word filtered back … sold out! I was so disappointed, crest fallen, depressed etc. etc.

Especially as a new bride, my wife was very much committed to her recent vows to love, honor, and pamper her husband till death do us part. Her positive, encouraging and cheery response was: “Let’s wait awhile, maybe someone will give us tickets”. She very much wanted to make me feel better but that’s what got me shaking my head.

My first unexpressed thought; what does my poor Canadian wife know about major league baseball. Cities in the northeast, i.e. Boston and New York, have a rather vain and at times even pompous view of themselves. I now live in New York and we speak of “the city” i.e. New York, as though no other city exists. Bostonians refer to Boston as the Hub, as in the hub of the universe. So it is likely 4 years of living in Kansas City and 4 years living in Canada, had not quite freed from all of that pomposity. So even though I still loved my new bride very much but she was obviously a rube from Canada needing enlightenment.

Still shaking my head, I responded quickly, “People do NOT just give away tickets to an Angels/RedSox game!” Her reaction was just a semi-smug knowing look and now my head is really shaking. It was no more than 30 seconds later, a gentleman approached us; “I have two box seat tickets I don’t need, would you like them?” Are you kidding me?! Now my head is lowered, but still shaking. Three rows up from the third base line, you could hear the base coach and players … best seats I ever had.

In over 30 years of marriage, we have never said I told you so, even once. But I think, even now, there is a touch of smugness when my wife thinks back to that day. And a touch of “humility/put in my place” feeling may still linger in my psyche as I learned one of the most important principles of marital bliss.

Women are smarter than men!