Leather and Women

I used to think my father was very strange for saying that a good woman is like a finely worked leather. The more I think about it, it seems to make sense! Leather is strong, yet soft. Leather is able to be both rigid and flexible. Leather can be torn, but it can also be mended. Leather comes in different colors and styles. No two hides are ever exactly the same, even if they are cured in the same fashion.

It seems to me that is what a Tuchuk woman is, too. We have to be strong, yet know when to be soft. We have to know when to be rigid and when to be flexible. We can have our hearts torn, but they will mend in time. No two women are the same, and our emotions do not work the same. Even if we are treated exactly alike by someone, each of us will respond differently. We each have our quirks, our stains, our unique qualities like a well tanned leather.

I'm not so sure that many would like this comparison, but I find it amazingly apt. Then again, most of life can be related to leather or its workings. There is so much more to it than many ever see. His often made comments about a woman being like leather came back to me tonight while I mulled over the things that have happened. Mayala ran away. That is something my mind still wants to reject. She left her people behind her, and she never even said good bye. My heart, it doesn't want to accept that. If this is truly what she did then these are her choices. They are not choices I could have made, but then again she is not me and I am not her. T'zuri has chosen to become a slave. She submitted to a man. Yes, it was to Fonce. He is quite a man. That doesn't really make it any easier to understand. Again, that is her life. My life, and my ways, well we're a different hide all together. Not sure what we will become when life is done tanning and curing us, but I do know that each day brings about another step in the process.