The backlash since the second wave of feminism has been fierce and unrelenting. Hard won gains can never be taken for granted, as we’ve learned recently in a most horrific way. We’ve endured five thousand years of patriarchy, during which most of that time women were not allowed to own property, have jobs, and much, much worse. Until the early 1990’s, there were states in the U.S. that allowed men to rape their wives without criminal charges. In many places today rapists are allowed parental rights!
What are those in power so afraid of? It occurs to me that men must believe that if women had power, they would treat men the way men have treated women over the past 5,000 years. Real power does not dominate and control. Real power is love and compassion.
In Brene Brown’s book “Braving the Wilderness” she shares a quote from The Gifts of Imperfection: Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.”
Seems to me that WHEN a critical mass recognize and believe in this truth, that we are all connected, THEN there’s hope for survival of the human species. While we await that moment, which may or may not come before catastrophes wipe us out, it behooves us to share our love and compassion with ourselves and others as much as we can…in service to each other.
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