Make Me a Sandwich: A History of Sacrifice

Make Me a Sandwich: A History of Sacrifice

I’ve found there are four surefire words to rile a woman up. All ethnicities, cultures, subcultures, locations, languages.

 Look her in the eye, lean forward a bit, and in a commanding voice, say, “Make me a sandwich.”

 Then raise your eyebrows a little so she knows you mean business.

Don’t back down, you weakling.

 This trope, so offensive in modern times to both men and women, came about somehow from someplace. Before the feminist movement started jacking up relations between men and women and blurring this really obvious line between the sexes, men went to work all day, whether it was on the farm, in the factory or on a ship, and came home. Their wives, usually SAHMs (stay-at-home-mothers) would bring them food as their exhausted husbands would sink into a chair and likely fall asleep. A lot of times, that food was a sandwich.

 Women had a lot of respect for how hard their husbands worked, what he sacrificed for the family to prosper. This had a lot to do with how women were brought up by their mothers back then.

 (Personally, I think the modern feminist movement could only take place after the advent of mechanized farm technology. I think the first feminist movement died out real quick when this pioneer feminist tried to handjam a plow through six acres of sod. After an hour of that, she realized that making a sandwich was WAY EASIER.)

 So when a wife then refused to bring her husband a sandwich, she was looked down on as an undutiful wife, ungrateful and not brought up well. This created a focal point for the modern feminist movement, who decided to be against making sandwiches for their husbands as a sign of resistance to patriarchal oppression.

 Thus was born the layers of meaning to the most fun four words a dude like me can utter.

 But this article isn’t about slamming the feminist movement or even women in general. Today, we’re going to talk about the concept of sacrifice and resulting gratitude.

 When a man takes a job, he becomes contractually obligated to trade 8-12 hours of his life a day to his employer for a little bit of money. That’s a huge chunk of every day to be in a servile position. Those are 8-12 hours he could be hunting, fishing, gaming, or spending time with his cute daughters. He gives up this present time for a better future.

 That is a sacrifice made daily in an expectation, in a hope, that the future for himself and his family will be prosperous.

 When a woman gets out of bed at 2 AM to nurse a crying baby, or sits with a sensitive daughter who heard a scary noise until she falls asleep, she sacrifices her sleep, comfort and some efficiency in the next day for that child.

 This is a sacrifice made not just out of love, but out of a hope that one day, this kid can be an astronaut or something. It’s a sacrifice made so a child can reach its potential.

 I swear, you can’t watch a cooking show anymore without half the contestants claiming they were raised by single mothers or ARE single mothers, which is itself a scathing indictment of either our society or the showmakers who choose the contestants. They always thank these women for their ceaseless sacrifice that makes it possible for them to be here to undercook that freaking risotto.

 Sacrifice is so misunderstood by our culture today, and yet God mandated it heavily throughout the law He authored for His people. It’s worth taking a minute or a thousand to wonder why sacrifice saturates what God thinks is right.

I mean, it seems weird, right? Take an innocent animal, a prize one, by the way, to the temple, watch the priest slash its throat open, drain the blood, then chuck it onto a well-used altar to burn to ash in the wind. THIS WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL.

I mean, wut.

Yet even cultures without that divine revelation that made up their own religions did the same, to a far worse extend. The firstborn, even of royalty, were routinely slaughtered and incinerated in ceremonies to the gods, in the hope that since we gave up something so important, that the gods would return the favor through prosperity, favor and rains for our crops. Men would be sacrificed before important battle to ensure victory.

 We still do it. If a girl gets pregnant as a teenager, a major option available to her is abortion. Get rid of the tiny life growing within, so you can still go to college, get a good job and not shame this family. Get rid of the baby, so you can keep living the life of hedonism you deserve.

 And men are just as complicit, by the way. Pressure her to abort the baby so you don’t have to deal with fatherhood.

 We sacrifice our children so we can live the lives we want to live, just like the savage heathens of ancient times. We are no different from them.

 So where does sacrifice become a Good? When it is done for an aim beyond ourselves. When a father gives thirty years of his life, suffering privation, arthritis and cancer, to give his kids a better shot at a better future. When a mother gives of her sleep, her emotional health, her freaking sanity, to make sure her kids are loved, fed and clothed.

 You see, we don’t honor those who sacrifice others for their own benefit. We don’t think that Jerry, who stole all the credit for the assignment we’ve been working on and got that cush promosh, is a great and honorable person.

 But we honor those that give of themselves for others. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines (and Guardians, I guess) who deploy into combat, miss Christmas, miss birthdays or childbirth: we honor them. We honor that single mom who works three jobs to take care of her kids, just as we scorn the politicians who keep her there to pad their pockets.

 So make the sacrifice. Guys, give up some time with the boys, the guys, the Squad, whatever, to give your wife a break from the kids. Sacrifice some of your comfort for her prosperity. Sacrifice your money to provide for your family.

 You might have to drop the comfort habit, whether it’s nicotine, alcohol or more League of Legends skins (ohmygosh, I NEED that Prestige Chosen of the Wolf Swain, though!!!) You have to drop the womanizing and porn so your wife can feel honored and valued.  You sacrifice the comfort of the present for a better future.

 Ladies, make the sacrifice. Have those kids, even though they’re gonna drive you crazy and you can’t go out for mimosaaaaaas all the time. You might have to drop the artisan coffees for Folgers at home. You might have to forgo the respect and self-fulfillment you get from a career for those kids at home who somehow need you but also don’t respect you at all.

 This is how we’re going to make our futures prosperous as a society, by understanding and embracing the principle of sacrifice that God was trying to teach us all along.

 Girls AND guys, make the sandwich. It’s not that hard.

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