The way I see it, people have to have some principles that hold them together. To keep them straight. To keep them morally aware that they have in them a sense of right and wrong, a sense of having made a firm stand on something. I’m not a perfectly straight individual, nor am I overtly religious, but I do have them. Things I hold important in my heart that keep me in touch with who i am and who i wish to be.
It’s rather simple, actually. Just three things: God, Love, and Girl Power.
These are not radical views. Nothing extraordinary. For me, Just steadfast.
Like I said, I’m not overtly religious. I do not believe in heavenly hierarchies of angels and archangels, because I only have one God and I do not need to know what position St. So and So holds in any heavenly court. I do not always agree with my priests. I hate so many of the rituals. But I firmly and surely believe in my God. In fact, my whole existence depends on that one belief that Someone more wonderful and powerful than I could ever imagine created me and the world I live in and that Someone deserves nothing less than my perpetual adoration.
I believe you cannot set boundaries to Love. but that human beings do have limits. unexpected things happen that cannot be explained by anything other than the simplicity of Love. It may come in different faces, but Love is our only goal in this life.
And thirdly, that women are just as important as men and I don’t care what the history books say. This is crucially important to me because I am a woman and my dignity comes from the belief that I am not a lesser creation simply because I do not have a testicle. It is not a joke to me. Though I don’t deny my need for my father or my brothers or the special male who took residence in my heart, I always take it seriously when gender issues are raised. I always take a second look when a woman comes into the ER battered like a punching bag. I always stand up for being a woman. And when someone makes fun of that just for the reason of pissing me off, it sets me to a boiling point that even i cannot explain… or perhaps control… For how else can a woman cope with the new millennium? How else can she hold her head high standing next to a man… the man she loves, if not as his equal? If there is no equality there, then there is a discrepancy in their relationship as well.
I don’t stand in the streets raising placards saying "women rule!" I don’t accuse Oprah Winfrey of betraying her gender when she chooses Obama over Hilary Clinton. I don’t insist God is a woman though God could easily be a Mother as well as a Father. But when men are excused from polygamy and women are persecuted for being mistresses or even for being number two’s, I react. When men two-time and get away with "She’s a nagger", or "she’s not sweet anymore", and women admit that it’s their fault, I react.
I always stand up for being a woman. And when someone makes fun of
that just for the reason of pissing me off, it sets me to a boiling
point that even i cannot explain…
Except that now I am faced with a predicament of my own making.:
Love…
And the weight I give to it when placed next to the weight I put on the dignity of being a woman…
Which way will the scales be tipped?
…
Damn it!
…I’ll say sorry when he understands my point.
March 2, 2008
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