Article January 30, 1978 Issue

Liberated selfhood

NANCY H. MINTER

Do you have a friend who is intelligent, trustworthy, and responsible? One you'd describe as having business acumen and honorable dealings? Who, at the same time, is charitable, understanding, strong, wise, and joyous?

Perhaps you do know someone who fits this description. Is this someone—this friend—a man or a woman? Were a quick survey possible, it would probably cite roughly an equal number of men and women. Yet the qualities mentioned are from a biblical description of a virtuous woman.^{See Prov. 31:10-31 ;}

But should we limit such qualities to women? Or should we label certain other qualities considered to be masculine "for men only"? Charity, intelligence, wisdom, and so on are universal qualities, free for each one of us to express in our own individual way. The myth that because of one's human sex only certain qualities of thought are possible or desirable must be cleared away. In its place, Christian Science defines true manhood and true womanhood as purely spiritual, reflecting all the qualities of the universal Father-Mother God.

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