I
was very conscious of role changes yesterday. First, my husband and I needed to get some basics for our new home in Sonoma County California. We were running late and made a last stop at the closest Costco. The Super Bowl had started about ten minutes before and as Saints fans, we wanted to get home to cheer this special team to success.
I stopped at the bank of televisions and became engrossed with the game and stood there with a few guys who had pulled up chairs and obviously planned to make an afternoon of it.
My husband, a macho kind of male, said he would get the items we needed including an ironing board and dish drainer for the kitchen. He suggested I pull up a chair. I did. And the men, without blinking an eye, included me in their conversation about strategy.
I must admit, I am a superficial fan of the game and it only peaks my attention when there is a story like the New Orleans team that has captured the imagination of the whole country. I was in the French Quarter several weeks ago when the Saints won the right to be in the Super Bowl and it was, so I heard, even better than Mardi Gras.
We returned home in time for the end of the game, and that is when I thought maybe, just maybe, the balance between men and women is really changing.
For me, the best part of the post game hoopla was watching the Saints quarterback, Drew Brees holding his year old son. That was not so unusual.
What really impacted me was the way he was holding and kissing him. In the midst of the tumult, in the midst of his major success, it was obvious he was so focused on his son with the overtly expressed love usually reserved for a mother and a child.
I will take the images of today, a husband who changed places and bought the dish drainer while his wife was engrossed in football, a group of men, strangers, who included that woman in their discussion, and a football hero kissing his son with a gentle delight.
And coupled with my memories of being in New Orleans three weeks after hurricane Katrina to help with the recovery efforts, seeing the scenes of the fun and liveliness back in that city, it feels like change is in the air everywhere.
Sylvia Lafair
Sylvia Lafair, PhD, is President of CEO – Creative Energy Options, Inc., a global consulting company focused on optimizing workplace relationships through her exclusive PatternAware™ Leadership Model. Dr. Lafair is the author of Don’t Bring It to Work: Breaking the Family Patterns That Limit Success published by Jossey-Bass. As an executive coach and leadership educator, she has more than 30 years of experience with all levels of management from leading corporate officers of global companies to executives of non-profits and owners of leading family-owned businesses. She is now offering GUTSY Women Weekends, giving women the opportunity to dialogue and clarify next steps.
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