The Idealistic Husband

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 138, 13 February 1942, Page 5

The Idealistic Husband

OME wives find it difficult to decide whether the fixer is worse than the husband who just stays fixed in one place and ponders on all the things he is going to do when he gets round to doing them. This type of delayed-action husband is particularly noticeable in the spring: probably because spring is

the season when his thoughts turn to gardening. He may be seen sitting in sunny corners of the garden turning his thoughts to gardening. He is found lying in a deck chair turning his thoughts to gardening. He is one of those poetic gardeners who would rather turn thoughts than sods. He likes to relax and observe the questing tendril and the bursting bud without profaning the poesy

of horticulture with a sordid spade, Dut the troubie is that his wife is so suspicious; she mistakes his joyous idealism for bone laziness. It is a great pity that spring produces in wives a horticultural urgency which is almost indecent to men who like to meditate on the mysteries of nature. The only mystery evident to wives is the mystery of why their husbands don’t take up the white man’s burden and stir nature into producing something they can’put on a plate or in a vase. This materialistic attitude is most. distressing to a meditative male. Even in the- evenings when a man likes to rest after the toil of turning his thoughts to gardening all day, his wife strives to goad him on the propagation of parsley and the raising of radishes.-("‘ The Man About the House." Ken Alexander. 2Y A, January 17.)