Goddesses Dancing vis Tumblr
Day 13: A – Z Challenge
Warning: This post suggests that women might have good ideas for fixing what ails us. That’s all. ‘Nuff said.
“The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.” — Gloria Steinem
Sisters are Doing It For Themselves.
I know a little something about women and women’s wisdom. Having twirled around the sun for more than five decades, I have learned a lot about the collective, feminine story simply because it is my story, too.
I believe in our wisdom. I believe in our discernment, our ability to self-reflect, our empathic nature, our reverence for life.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
If you think about it (at all) it’s no mystery. We give birth. We nurture children. We care for animals. We grow things, plant things, make things.
And saying that it might be time for women to take the wheel and run this world for a bit, is not implying that we hate men or we want to wear pants (although some of us think pants are quite comfortable). The last time women were in charge (about 3,000 years ago, in certain cultures) society was much more egalitarian, more equal and fair, less warring, and more reverent.
That’s a fact.
Men have had their turn running the world.
The survival of the fittest, winner takes all, get out my way, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps mentality is the result.
Fact.
The world’s a mess. It is a hot mess of pollution, ecocide, mass extinction, oil spills, over-fishing, factory farming, and political grandstanding. It is a gun-waving, war-ravaged mess.
I am not saying that the fault lies only with men. Not at all.
We’ve built this collective nightmare together; however, women (generally speaking) have not been in charge of what’s gone on.
Perhaps, it’s time that changed.
Repression of the Feminine via Pinterest
A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform. — Diane Mariechild
Of course, I admit I do not know anything about what it’s like to be a man in this world. I can imagine it is pretty painful. Men aren’t supposed to feel anything. Except, perhaps, anger. That’s sanctioned by our society.
But, as a woman, I can never know what it is like to live in the skin of a man. Truly.
I acknowledge that men are from Mars and women are from, well, elsewhere. We are completely, radically, fundamentally different.
What pisses me off is to hear some men talk to women as though we have no more sentience than rocks.
As though we are a bit thick. As though we are a few cards short of a full deck.
Mansplaining.
What pisses me off is that fatherly, ‘I know best’ attitude that gets thousands of new laws on the books in state after state after state, attempting to control women’s bodies and rights. What pisses me off is the notion that my expertise and education garner significantly less pay than my peer colleagues with the same expertise and education, but an X chromosome.
I’ve written about what I think is going on — the huge changes that are afoot — and all the ways in which a cosmic shift is underway.
“It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.” ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”
When women read my work, those on the same wavelength ‘get it.’ They acknowledge my right to have my say. Some like it; some don’t — but if it’s not their worldview, they move along, no worse for the wear.
And lots of men ‘get it’ too.
However, some feel compelled to correct me, to explain why I am wrong. Why things are not changing. Why shifts are not happening. Why I am crying wolf in a big dark wood.
Why? Why must my worldview be wrong in order for theirs to be right? (I am fine with them holding that view; just not with them trying to stamp mine out, like it’s a fire that will spread.)
We all have gifts to bestow.
We all have wisdom to share. I am offering my hard won insight into the human condition.
I don’t speak for you anymore than you speak for me.
The whole point is, perhaps, let’s share what we know.
Let’s really talk. Let’s hash out our fears, our recriminations, our wounds.
Let’s allow the conversation to take place. Let’s ‘let it rip’ collectively, so we can quit wounding each other and decimating the world around us.
Yes, women are changing the world.
And, yes, there are empathetic, good, cooperative, open-hearted men who are changing it, too.
Women don’t need to sit at the head of the table surrounded by only other women. We simply need to be allowed to pull up a chair and sit with the men who are already there. At the big table. Not the kiddie table. Not the card table in another room.
We have good ideas; we want to share them and work alongside you to implement them.
What if we hold the ideas that change everything? What if women turn out to be the ones you’ve been waiting for?
© 2015 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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