Father What-a-Waste

Dymphna doesn't like this term:

This phrase has irritated me for years. When a woman refers to a priest that way she's saying that the only men who should serve God are the ones who are uglier than a fatherlesss billy goat and/or so socially inept that no woman would want them.

Well, no. I have often heard this term but mostly in a sort of back-handed compliment to a fellow who happens to be blessed by God to wear a Roman collar and have some nice features. Actually, the features are a secondary part, since I have also heard this term to describe a priest who - in the opinion of the ladies - would have made a fine husband and father, and let me tell you, good looks are not as important as you think as to what makes a man attractive to a woman. But that is a sacrifice he has made for Mother Church - and, in a way, a sacrifice we women make by respecting him for that decision.

Interestingly, one priest who was at a parish to which I once belonged spokeof his Roman collar being a "chick magnet," in that he would encounter rather forward women - women who were quite frank about their feelings that if he would just give them the chance, they could show him what he has been "missing." I suppose those are the same who cannot respect the "no pest strip", i.e., wedding band, on the left hand of a man they find attractive.

But that does not mean we ladies cannot appreciate an attractive man, be he priest, firemen, judge, carpenter, Mark Harmon, or a UPS deliveryman. Or, in my case, my dearest Husband, who gets both my love and appreciation . . .

Okay, not a picture of my husband but both have that

thick 'ole thatch of silver on top that is just delicious!