Men with their Women - Reclaiming your marriage rite

There are a lot of stereo types about men and women out there, I think we can all agree on this. The main theme on this blog is the Defense of our Faith, and thereby our families and country, against the forces of the Devil, evil, and of course his main weapon: RELATIVISM. These two intersect when relativism or evil creates some sort of chasm between the interaction between the sexes. These chasms become interwoven into our culture and into the dynamic which is the everyday interaction of men and women, especially those courting one another.
I met my wife a long time ago. We didn't marry for a long time, which is another story for another time, but one of the the things we have always fought against, and one of the things "of this world" which we have always struck out against are the "new age" stereo types that exist in the sexes. Don't get me wrong I think that gender roles EXIST, are a good thing, and are often innate in us. Yet, stereotypes are sort of anti-roles that have emerged through cultural and societal conditioning. [This is especially true since the late 60's and early-70's.] It has hurt both sexes, but I think it has hurt men the most. I have talked about this before, the immasculation of men, the portrayal of men in tv as bumbling idiots, and the way that our culture has formed the image of the man into an un-chivalrous buffoon.
One of the ways this has happened is the idea that men love and should love activities which get them away from women. [Don't read this incorrectly. I am not arguing that men SHOULDN'T have their own hobbies and have times, places and things where they join other men in friendship and camaraderie.] We have terms like "deer hunting widows" and "man caves." These terms have been created to explain situations and places where men and women separate from each other for "alone" time. Interestingly, there aren't "fad-tastic" words for spending time together.
Now, this isn't my way of bragging about my wife or my marriage for that matter. Instead I am going to use my marriage and examples from my life to show ways that these stereotypes and situations can be broken and battled against.
When I proposed to my wife she had never fired a gun, gone hunting, ridden a snowmachine, or gone ice fishing. In the last 10 months she has done all of the above. Now I am not saying that these things are intrinsically important to a marriage, but they are examples of how a guy can find ways to not only do things in which he enjoys, but find opportunities to spend time with his wife and broaden their relationship. This is what I have found with my wife. Sure, there are times in which I do these things alone, or with other guys absent my wife. In fact, those are necessary and important times for both of us in a marriage. But just as these activities don't carry anything intrinsic within them that adds to a marriage, they also don't inversely have anything intrinsically beneficial within them that add to a man when they are done purposefully without his wife. In short, the activities carry their intrinsic qualities regardless of the fact with whom they are shared.
So guys, every once and while ask the wife along hunting, fishing, or whatever it is you do. Don't expect her to like it, don't expect her to "Get it," be "good" at it, or even go more than once. Do let her experience it though. Let he see what it is you do, so that she has SOME context. This will prove dividends when you DO "go it alone." Heck, who knows... maybe she WILL love it and the next thing you know she will want to spend your next tax return on matching shotguns instead of a new patio set. I don't think any marriages are in danger of having to many mutual activities. I do think there are marriages in danger of having too many solo ones though. God wants us to have time together, and time apart. He doesn't want us to live separate lives though. Therefore, we must include our spouses in the things we love if for no other reason than to allow them to share in the things that make us happy.
As an example I am including some pictures of what my wife and I did today. We went ice-fishin in Alaska. That meant getting all bundled up, taking some snow machines out on a lake, and standing in the cold for a few hours. I know this won't be every ladies' cup of tea, but to prevent some excuses my wife is 37+ weeks pregnant and said, "Who WOULDN'T want to do this or try this?" [Note: We were safe in everything that we did. We understand the precautions and health implications of everything surrounding pregnancy and nothing we did was contrary to her health, the baby's health, or any doctors advisory.]