No Muse Is Good Muse

Because your thoughts are your own

You don't need anyone else to validate your existence

(My own personal reflections)

Gloria Steinem is a fascinating woman. She’ll turn 76 on March 25, 2010 and she’s still going strong. I’ve been reading up on her views and news lately because it has sadly come to my attention that there are individuals out there who really believe this intelligent and deep-thinking woman actually recanted her beliefs about feminism. Not true at all.

I can see how, in a typical neo-con fashion, some would take something she has stated out of context and warp it into an entirely different animal that is the opposite of what she really meant. This is a common ploy used to feed false information to those who have no desire to research and educate themselves on their own and would instead rely on being fed propaganda designed by and for control addicts to justify their determination in insisting they are uber-righteous and are superior beings.

There is no longer any excuse for being misinformed. A simple Google search opens up all sides of a subject. It is healthy to view different facets and opinions and not just limit yourself to wearing blinders so that you only see what coincides with your own beliefs. In fact, prejudicing yourself in that manner is dangerous. Feeding your mind through the funneling effect of blinders narrows your field of vision and, in turn, results in creating a narrow mind. How can you effectively debate about your beliefs if you refuse to understand the opposing viewpoint?

Gloria Steinem has the strength, courage, and wisdom to recognize that human nature is not two-dimensional. She views all sides of the issues and understands that people cannot be conveniently forced into manufactured pigeonholes of subjugation without causing far-reaching damage to humanity.

Gloria Steinem quotes:

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.”

“The family is the basic cell of government: it is where we are trained to believe that we are human beings or that we are chattel, it is where we are trained to see the sex and race divisions and become callous to injustice even if it is done to ourselves, to accept as biological a full system of authoritarian government.”

“The most dangerous place for a woman is not the street, it’s her own home. Studies of batterers show that they believe they are entitled to control, so the fundamental problem is men getting addicted to an idea of ‘masculinity’ that includes control.”

Here are a couple of excerpts from an interview by Marianne Schnall on 12/05/06 called “Conversation with Gloria Steinem”. It is well worth reading the whole interview: http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/interviews/gloriasteinem.html.

MS: Last Friday there was an article in The New York Times featuring a very disturbing story and statistics about the prevalence of sexual abuse of very young girls in countries like Africa, and the fact that there is rarely any kind of adequate punishment or justice for these crimes. The writer stated that she believed that the situation stems from gender inequity in these countries. Can you explain why this is and what we can do to change this?

GS: As long as women are possessions not people, or objects not subjects, and there’s this enormous motivation to control reproduction, which in turn produces the gender roles – then the result is that masculinity is defined by dominating women. It’s like a drug – men get hooked on the idea that they have to be violent towards women, or at least control women, in order to be real men. And if they are not doing that, then they feel like an addict without a fix. This is probably worse in countries that have been under colonial domination, so the model of ruling manhood was doubly cruel and dominating, and men’s minds are still colonized by it. So we have to humanize the gender roles, which are in any case, the biggest source of violence on Earth, as at least one chief of state has pointed out – Olaf Palme of Sweden – and then he, too, was murdered.

MS: Feminism is often described as women having the ability to make choices for ourselves and our lives, but often it seems as though women have become so brainwashed by society that we ourselves don’t know who we are and what we want. How can we better help women stay in touch with ourselves so we can make empowered choices?

GS: Yes, in order to make a choice, you need the power to see there is one, much less make it. The most effective means we have is to talk to each other in groups. Human beings are communal creatures. If we’re by ourselves we come to feel crazy and alone. We need to make alternate families of small groups of women who support each other, talk to each other regularly, can speak their truths and their experiences and find they’re not alone in them, that other women have them too – so it’s a systemic problem. It makes such a huge difference. If I could have one structural wish for the women’s movement, it would be that we have a kind of Alcoholics Anonymous group structure all over the world, so that wherever you go in a different village or town you can find the feminist equivalent of an AA group to go to once a week and to get some support, and some help with seeing the politics of what’s happening to us.

Gloria Steinem, I salute you!

January 25, 2010

The Patchwork Pagan – Living Outside The Cubbyholes

I dislike labels, so it’s kind of ironic to talk about being a Patchwork Pagan. The point is, sometimes a little clarity is necessary. It does afford most people a measure of comfort to feel that they know whom they are dealing with. Meeting a new person is like opening a new book. The anticipation of a new story is thrilling. I do admit that when I get a new book, though, the first thing I do is read the synopsis on the dust jacket. It’s a shortcut. It’s an easy way to tell if I’m going to be interested in the story.

But people are not books. We don’t have dust jackets. We don’t stick to one subject with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. And that is precisely what makes people so fascinating. Everyone has known someone who has many tales of meeting interesting or bizarre people. It makes you wonder how they do it. How do they come across these people? The answer is simple, really. All it takes is removing the blinders that funnel our perceptions through filters of preconceived notions and prejudices. Be curious and genuinely interested. Pry yourself out of whatever cubbyhole you’ve sequestered yourself in and you will find you can see others in a three-dimensional way that isn’t possible when you insist on shoe-horning them into cubbyholes you’ve created.

Do you limit your reading to only one topic? If so, you are missing the richness of life. It’s the same with people. You don’t have to necessarily agree with the person you are conversing with (and that opens the whole realm of talking ‘with’ versus talking ‘at’ someone). You don’t have to argue, either. Remember the saying, “We can agree to disagree.” If you are non-threatening you will be amazed at how others will relax and open up. It’s okay to voice your opinion just as it’s okay for them to voice theirs. You will both come away richer for having met someone new.

When I talk about being a Patchwork Pagan, I am specifically talking about diversity. If I told you that I am sitting here writing this surrounded by rich colors and self-handcrafted items like a floor lamp made from a branch while drinking my own blend of chai tea and enjoying the scent of a little simmering pot of patchouli, cinnamon, and lavender, what picture would you have of me? Is it one of an eclectic woman or an old hippie? Is it a good picture or a bad one in your mind? The way I dress and carry myself seems to make people respond by saying they always wanted to live in the mountains and dress like I do. That always surprises me because I dress the way I enjoy and don’t worry about what other people will think of it. The one thing I find infinitely amusing is that the very last thing people assume of me is that I was once a long-time, June Cleaver-type, military officer’s wife! More than 12 years ago I put that aside and regained the life I had before.

To me, a Patchwork Pagan is someone who rejects the religious cubbyholes that society creates and people willingly put themselves and others into. A Patchwork Pagan wears no blinders and is open to considering all aspects of life. I understand and accept that anyone is free to have his own beliefs and faith. Whatever works to get you through life in a productive way is fine. The only thing I ask is that you not judge me because I don’t believe what you do. Don’t tell me that I have to be a Christian or Witness or Muslim or Goddess-worshiper or whatever in order to get into your idea of heaven. Don’t tell me that if I profess to be an agnostic or atheist that I am woefully ignorant. My response will be that I don’t judge you and it’s my own preference to refuse to base my life on a premise of judgment and retribution if I don’t follow the ‘divine’ rules set out by man. I very simply prefer to live a good and kind life because it is the right thing to do, not because I will be punished if I do not. I prefer to not feel the need to give credit to nor blame some higher power for the responsibility of my own actions. It is a big responsibility to stand accountable for my own actions but it is definitely a win-win situation in the long run.

The important thing is, Patchwork Pagan or not, be honest and kind and try to slough off any double standards you may be shackled with that cloud your view of the world. I hope you find peace.

Warning: The following may be disturbing and controversial to some. It is an emotional open letter to young people about my opinions of government and war that I originally wrote back in March 2008. When the whole gulf war thing started my son, who is a husband and father, pointed out that his generation was born after Viet Nam and they had never seen our country involved in a war and so their viewpoint was not terribly realistic. That, plus the fact that one of my brothers was killed in Viet Nam and the other came back emotionally scarred, spurred me to write this:

WHAT WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DIE FOR?

What would you be willing to die for? What would make you condone the atrocities of war? I’m not talking about the video game and popular movie glorifications showing high-tech, blood-splashed scenes without showing the real, horrible agony of prolonged suffering. I’m speaking to a generation that is only now beginning to see their friends and relatives returning home forever disfigured, mentally and emotionally scarred. Or, them returning home in a cold steel box to never again laugh or play those games with you.

You are now a generation with children of your own. Yes, I believe you would die defending your children from harm. But think about it seriously for a moment. Given that scenario, do you first picture actually putting your life on the line in a personal situation of self-defense, or do you see yourself being shipped off to some place that your government tells you to blindly believe may be an outside threat to our “national security” so you can attack and become a target of someone defending their own family in a very real, up front and personal kind of way? Once there, would you truly see yourself as the “good guy”, liberating a people that obviously do not want you there; a people who see you as an invader? Maybe you would if you bought into the thorough brainwashing of basic training that taught you to blindly follow orders and de-humanize what your government has decided are our enemies so you don’t have to think of them as people. That has been an effective tactic all throughout mankind’s history. It’s enabled leaders to use soldiers as drones and pawns in their quests for power while they stay safely at home or up on the hill out of harm’s way. Then they can look over the images of crumpled bodies on the smoking, bloody battlefields and declare themselves victorious in their game. They don’t see you as individual people; they merely see you as tools while they smugly chant, “The ends justify the means. Collateral damage is part of war.” They count and manipulate the numbers. They do not consider the everlasting horror that “cleansing” creates.

You live in an age of possibilities to discover what is really true. You grew up with computers and cell phones. You have instant communication. The internet and satellite television broadcasts enable you to view what past generations could not. It’s up to you to investigate and refuse to wear the blinders that politicians keep trying to put on you with their short attention span sound bites and their “let’s scare America” tactics. Governments and big corporations have always lied to the general population to achieve their objectives. But you have the means to filter out the truth and keep yourselves educated so you don’t have to be the mindless sheep they laugh at behind closed doors while they line their pockets and give cursory lip-service to the widows and mothers.

War, very simply, is about power and greed. Very much like the playground bullies who push the weaker kids to one side while they claim their territory. Remember how you were told those bullies are really cowards deep down inside? It’s like King of the Hill. Only, in war, people die. Lives are ruined. Countries are devastated. And for what? Conquest. Self-defense is understandable but the aggressive actions that cause people to need to defend themselves are not. Consider that your government has appointed itself the police of the world, invading and massacring wherever it pleases for veiled reasons that are no more substantial than mist.

America has become the ultimate Bully. Be ashamed. And very seriously ask yourself if it is worth dying, and murdering, for.

Flaming Daisies

Growing, Learning, Achieving! Standing tall, turning our faces to the Sun!

The Patchwork Pagan – Living Outside The Cubbyholes