Check Out the Mysterious Mrs. B. Roth

I got tagged/awarded by The Mysterious Mrs. B. Roth. I generally do not follow along with these chain things, with rules like these:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (or whatever random number you want :)
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

But I did want to call your attention to her site and "award" her back.

She wrote about this blog:

A strange little cubbyhole, try Everything Must Go! Ken likes to deconstruct advice columns and provides, free of charge, very useful bits of dating and marriage tips. Fearlessly weighing in on adult topics without becoming crass or puerile, I find his messages useful and entertaining.

High praise, indeed. Thanks!

I have been interested in what females really think since at least adolescence. The male mind and the female mind do work differently. I used to secretly thumb through my sister's Seventeen magazines to try to get some idea. But whether it is Seventeen or Cosmo, you're still only dealing with a handful of women, who are essentially speaking on the heavily-edited commercial public record to please advertisers.

I do have my wife's brain to pick now. But more perspective can be good. Through Mrs. B. Roth's blog, I get to see the thoughts and experiences of a wife and mother with children a little older than mine. She's a good writer who gives an authentic glimpse into motherhood, marriage, and domestic management, and living out a religion that is somewhat different than mine. I'd rather read her stuff than a celebutant’s blog any day. Indeed, someone who has never been to America could learn much more about what it is like to live in America by reading her blog than they could by reading the New York Times.

I really need to add her to my blog roll on the right. I need to update the blog roll anyway. Heck, I need to update the entire blog.

Some other good sites are already there in the blog roll. One I check with regularity is Biblical Manhood, which is written by an unmarried, male follower of Christ. As he says:

This is a blog about "biblical manhood." I am not here to give Bible-believing men a list of do's and don'ts. Plenty of others already make a living doing that. My intention is provide a scriptural response to anti-male sexism. My intention is to proclaim the truth to the status quo and defend those who have been denied a voice for far too long. In this, I believe I am following the example of my Lord and Savior.

He also links to some other great places to get real male perspectives. You may not be aware of it, but most mainstream media, especially television, is primarily geared towards the sensitivities of women, which are different than those of men. This is because so much of the media is heavily dependent on advertisers, and women are by far the ones doing most of the consumer spending. (Hey, my wife is a darn good shopper so I'm happy to leave most of that to her!) Workplace cultures are also mostly geared towards the sensitivities of women now. The same goes for most of academia and most churches and Christian media, which is what makes Biblical Manhood such a fascinating read. With so many boys being raised without a father in the home, with fewer places for them to go for unfettered socialization with men, with the general bent toward female sensitivities, and with willfull anti-masculinity found in mainstream culture, it is nice to have someplace to go for a different perspective, perhaps a place that a young man may find out that he can be a follower of Christ without being a wimp or always peeing sitting down.