THE TESTOSTERONE / I.Q. CONTINUUM: PART ONE

Before I begin, I have to tell you that I did not know how to spell two of the words in the title.  As I usually do, I went to Bing and typed them in with my best guess at the spelling of each (eat your hearts out, you Scripps/Howard Spelling Bee geeks).  Much to my surprise, there were 39,100 responses!  So, I decided to type in the title as I have it here, and there were 16,300 responses!  According to many of them, the higher the testosterone, the lower the I.Q.  I wish there was some way to find out how many of the authors were women, make that divorced women.  Unfortunately, at seventy years of age, I have to agree with them.  When my wife and I were first married (17 & 19), I must have been too stupid to know how to breathe!  I have mixed emotions today as I have discovered my I.Q. has sky-rocketed.  Enough said!

One of the areas in which I seem to have grown by leaps-and-bounds intellectually, is in my understanding of marriage.  Unfortunately, I am finding that this recently acquired knowledge is not only difficult to communicate to other men, absolutely none of them, regardless of age, seem to want to glean from my wisdom.  Those in their late teens and early twenties seem to view what I say as being some foreign language.  Those in their thirties and forties apparently still have high levels of testosterone, and they either cannot understand me, or they simply do not want to hear what I have to say.  Once they reach their fifties, they understand, but by that time, they are going through the five stages of grief (Denial; Anger; Bargaining; Depression; and a reluctant Acceptance)! 

So, what use is it for an old man to gain wisdom if it is not transferable?  I really don't know; I guess it is just God's way of giving me peace and comfort for surviving our fifty years of marriage.  Nevertheless, I think I will write it down here, and then, in three or four decades from now, maybe someone will find it and get a chuckle out of it.

1)  Testosterone may be the greatest hindrance to a marriage lasting.  It makes the young man focus upon his own desires, often without regard to his wife's experience that day.  While he has one goal for that evening, he interprets her response as her saying, "I don't love you like I once did!"
2)  Testosterone is so powerful that instead of the husband being understanding, it drives him to use manipulation and bribes to sway her.  She loses respect for him.
3)  Testosterone is the number one force behind adultery, and perhaps, "spouse-ocide."
4)  Adultery, to the testosterone impeded young male, causes him to interpret his "new relationship" as being the love his wife once had for him.  Of course, the "grass is greener," and off he goes!

To be continued.