Been doin a lot of thinking lately. Usually I think a bit, then write a bit and so on. But I’ve been thinking a lot, and writing notsomuch, but also reading a bunch too.
What I’m trying to figure out is really nothing new:
How in the sam hill did we get to where we are now, and what the heck are we going to do about it?
I fear to tip my hand in this post, but you know what, I don’t really care if I offend. The time for sitting idly by and being polite and politically correct has long since passed.
We are at a point in our human history where it comes down to live or die.
I’m pretty sure it wasnt the polite fish who hauled itself out of the ocean and decided to take a stroll on the beach. Just saying, like. Live or die. Live or die. Live or die. Evolve or drown in the sea of forgotten history.
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Ok here’s what I’ve come up with. As always feel free to comment, rant and basically tell me how you feel via comments.
Ok so how did we get to where we are now? Here is what I think as I look around and make a head count and a bed check.
Seems to me les hommes have been running the show for the most part, so I’m putting to them to take responsibility for How Thing Are Right Now.
And I got info and stats and whatnot to back up my claims:
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Consider. How many countries on our planet have a woman as their leader? Umm 6? ok 3? or 5? I dunno. Considering we have 150 or so soveriegn nations/countries in our world, that is a poor showing.
How many bodies of power and ruling have women among their ranks? We just made a huge whoop de do over Sotamayor, because looking at our senators, our jurists or party leaders etc, we come up as skewed as any other nation you might wish to hold up to the light.
In the USA we talk about “our peers”. Making sure a jury is balanced and all that. Well half of our nation is female, and we have a piss poor representation in pretty much ever aspect of our American lives.
And yet we sneer at countries like Afghanistan, and meanwhile while I don’t have to run around in burkha how much difference is there really between us when it comes to the lives of women?
Am I being dramatic? Consider:
Forbes top 100 list
The top chefs
Religious orders (I’ll expand on that fer sher)
Education
Politics
Literature
Fashion Industry
Film, Television & Media
Military
Law enforcement
The Arts
The Law
Medicine
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I’ll let you think for a little bit.
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Meanwhile did you know that it has only been in the last 10 years, that the medical industry as stopped using the male body as its sole example for which to develop care cures and medicine? Meaning now they also use the female body.
Interesting that we’ve known that there are chemical and hormonal differences and gosh knows what else, and you wonder how many women have suffered if not DIED or birth defects arriving simply because the medicine at hand was not even created for our bodies? The mind just boggles.
Maybe you arent used to being thought of as a 2nd or 3rd class citizen. Maybe you aren’t used to not being thought of at all. Maybe you aren’t used to realizing that no matter how high a salary you might garner for yourself, your male equivalent is making much more. Why?
Maybe its time for us all to start asking that question.
Consider:
It was shown unequivocally that America had given 8 years for things to get better, and they got worse. The numbers are there for you to see, America said yall had yalls chance, and just LOOK at this fookin MESS we gotta clean up now.
So that’s how I view the world at large. Just LOOK at this fooking MESS we gotta clean up now.
You guys have had a long time *coughsalemwitchtrialscough* oh such a very long time *coughtheinqusitioncough* in order to show that you can run things properly.
From what I see, you just haven’t got the knack of it. Maybe you need some help. Maybe if we work TOGETHER instead of trying to OPPRESS and STAMP OUT and KEEP IN HER PLACE we might actually save ourselves, this planet and be free and clear to move on to that next evolutionary stage.
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A thought just popped into my head. Remember that Star Trek movie? The one where the space ship shows up and is looking for a whale to communicate with and ooop! we done killded all the whales, and now we are in buku kimchi?
Perhaps the reasons why the world is in so damn much trouble, so damn almost out of time is that we are not realizing what a valuable resource we have right here in front of our noses.
I’m not saying turn the tables and have the women ruling the roost. As nice a thought as that is for me, I know that to imbalance things in the other direction will prove as fruitless an endeavor as things have ended up today.
Balance. Equality. Respect. We are at Whale Time people.
The Universe is looking for that harmony and not finding it. We are in the kimchi and thank goodness yall haven’t like KILLED US ALL OFF, so we ARE here to get the balance restored.
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The first steps. Oh man they are going to be so hard. We have whole societies (hey including ours!) that are based on ignoring if not not downright oppressing the feminine.
Should we scoff at the idea that should we balance between the sexes, the world might come into balance as well? Dare we scoff?
Oh and we are going to have to figure out something to do in place of war. I dunno, have a world wide dance fest or something? Sound rediculous? Well thats as rediculous (more!) as war seems to me.
Another thing just popped into my head. That commercial for some sort of vodka i think. It shows a world where instead of bombs, grenades, bullets and such we have pillows. My fav scene is the guy who hops up on the tank and tosses a pillow inside, and kaboom! I mean kafloof! all these feathers explode out of the openings in the tank.
There is so much more than the surface of that advert. I adore it. I wish thats the way we would do war – if in fact it turns out we just cannot stop ourselves.
Every conflict would be a giant pillow fight. How long can you keep whaling on someone with pillows until you both start giggling and laughing and realize how silly the whole thing is? Yes. See?
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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about religion. Now I could do a whole series of posts on the different aspects I’ve been thinking on, but for now I’ll stick to the theme of this particular post.
I’ll tackle the biggies, then comment on my own branch of faith too.
Judaism: All male leadership. As been only in the last two decades or so, that there have been female rabis. I was matron (maid? I forget) of honor at my friend Steen’s Jewish wedding, and she had a female rabbi presiding. That was nice!
Christianity: Ok that is huge, since there is so many branches. Priests, Pastors, Preachers, Reverends etc. By and large are male. Some branches, mostly in the protestant side, have women in those positions, sprinkled around here and there.
Catholicism: The leadership is male. The nuns? Well lets see. In order to get in line to be a pope, you have to be a Bishop. In order to be a Bishop, you have to be a Priest. Are there female priests? Newp.
Islam: Male leadership once again. In general, Islam has no centralized authorities, no class of clergymen, or group of priests. The individual’s bond with God is considered to be direct with no intermediary. (quoted from THIS)
According to that, ( and THIS too) there is no reason why a woman could not say, become and Imam or end up in whatever scholarly or leadership positions that do exist. But I haven’t seen it. Or maybe I’m ignorant on the subject. Feel free to enlighten me.
Buddhism: Like Christianity as a whole, there are branches and branches, yet one thing I find in common: male leadership. Tibetan monks are male. Again in order to considered for the ultimate leadership there: Dalai Lama, you start with monk, then maybe if you can get there, you become a Rinpoche/Lama whatever and then are in line to be considered. As there are no female monks (that i know of) there would never be a female Dalai Lama.
Tibetan Buddhism follows the Shakyamuni teachings. Meaning the orginal Buddha. Who happened to be a dude, so ok I can see how things have ended up that way. I guess.
Nichiren Shoshu: This is interesting. My own particular buddhism. It is a lay organization, yet there is a priesthood. They marry and have children and all that. But as far as I know, all are male. However in the lay organization, the leadership is a bit more balanced. Yet at the very top since the beginning, it has been male.
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So where does that leave us? An excerpt from Dan Brown’s novel The Davinci Code tries to console us that the Sacred Feminine is alive and kicking:
…Look around you. Her story is being told in art, music and books. More so every day. The pendulum is swinging. We are starting to sense the dangers or our history…and of destructive pasts. We are beginning to to sense the need to restore the sacred feminine. Finish [the manuscript out the symbols of the sacred feminine]… sing her song. The world needs modern troubadors.
Thats all well and good and poetic and wonderful? But I feel and I sense that we are fast running out of time. If we have been “singing her song” for so darn long, and things are at the state they are right now, I could posit that its time to stop singing and start yelling from the rooftops.
And really, I’m not that interested in the sacred feminine. I’m interested in equality between the sexes. Equality between the humans on this planet. If the Goddess decides to emerge, well I’ll leave that up to Her. I’m quite practical in my wishes, you see.
America decided that what had been going on wasn’t working, and opted to try for Change. I think we need to take a global look at ourselves and decide to opt for a serious Change.
Perhaps our very lives depend on it. Perhaps not. But what I do know, and can see as clearly as I sense time slipping away from us, is that we have to do SOMEthing.
Coming together and uniting the unbalances in our world can only serve us for the better. Ending conflict where we reap the harvest of human lives can only serve us for the better. Ending behaviours that devastate our ecosphere, and the very air we breathe can only serve us for the better.
This is the only planet we’ve got (so far) and we’d better figure out a way to make sure we’ll still have it for our children and grandchildren. And I don’t simply mean survival mode. A lovely, lush, beautiful, bountiful, vibrant and eclectic planet that we respect, and in turn unfolds for us in all its mystery and strength.
Doesnt nurturing the very thing that gives us life make sense? I happen to love this planet and I’ll not down without a (pillow) fight. Not one single person can save the world, but each of us doing our part can.
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I’ll write more on my thoughts, as I go along. I ask you to take some moments of silence and look within, and send without, and tell me if you do or do not feel this sense of urgency that I’m feeling.
I am insecure on my feelings, as those of you who know who have been reading my blog, so anything that you can add to this will be of tremendous help to me.
Feelings of urgency aside, at the very least I hope that there are others out there who understand that things cannot go on as they have been, and have us survive; either as a people or a planet. In that I am secure and know that to be The Truth.
