I would concur with just about everybody who has responded to
Teresa's suggestion and especially with what Tj said about valuing
the positive masculine and feminine qualities regardless of the
gender of the person manifesting them. I know that's not exactly what
you said, Tj, but this is the slant that I put on this issue.
However, I also think I know how Teresa feels about some of the
discussions that have been going on (and I'm certainly overwhelmed
by the volume of material!). We each have our own personal
interests that have prompted us to join this group and although mine
are obviously focussed on the spiritual aspects of the issues
surrounding ecofeminism, I am interested in reading what other people
think about other things. Like Tj said, this forum is an opportunity
for us to learn about other systems of belief, to broaden our minds. I
also believe that things will settle down once we all get more
familiar with each other and people will drop out as they find the
discussion less relevant to their personal experience. That's the
beauty of the internet; it is a fantastic forum for uniting people
but it still maintains some of the anonymity or privacy that some
people need.
Perhaps something that we could delve into at a deeper level is
the equality issue. Rather than _just_ focussing on the
political/social/economic consequences of patriarchy and how many
sensitive men are suffering from guilt for the collective mistakes of
their ancestors, perhaps we could discuss positive and constructive
means by which some of the suffering on all sides could be lessened.
At least for the next generation or two (or three or four ...), we
are still going to be dealing with the consequences of centuries of
oppression not only of men over women but also of the colonizers over
the colonizees, humanity over nature, the strong over the weak, etc.
etc. Tj said something to the effect that as long as one part is
weak the whole thing is weak (or something like that). The whole
human species is like the human body. If there is a slight injury to
one part, the rest of the body isn't terribly devastated; the healing
process is relatively quick and easy (if it started out healthy). But
when there is a massive injury or a widespread disease, the whole
body is debilitated, not just the injured part. Humanity is at the
stage where we still have a lot of "cancer" to cure and as long as
any people anywhere in the world are suffering, all of us are
suffering. We are all connected in a very basic way because we are
all human beings possessing the same inherent spiritual qualities.
(We just don't all consciously manifest them.) That is our unity. As
fetuses we are virtually identical. Every baby (with a few
exceptions) is born with that same purity of essence, that same wide-
eyed wonderment, that same vulnerability to its new environment. It
is only later that we learn how to see difference and view it as
dangerous or threatening. But what if our societies viewed
difference as an integral aspect of our connectedness? What if
diversity was viewed as a unifying factor rather than a divisive one?
If at least one person thinks that way (and I know there are actually
millions who do), then don't we have the collective capacity to shift
our thinking as a species? It may (will) take a long time but I
believe that eventually humanity will be united. Even if I won't see
it in my lifetime, it is something I feel compelled to strive toward
for all of our descendants.
I applaud all the women and men in our group who are open-minded
to the changes going on within themselves and society as we struggle
to build a new system to replace the oppressive institutions that are
crumbling around us (and they _are_ crumbling). We have a new world to
look forward to, a world in which people are not blinded by prejudice
but rather are as wide-eyed as a newborn to the wonderment of the
universe and the joy of living.
I've spent more time here this morning than I intended. I look
forward to sharing more with all of you.
Roxanne
