The real battle for the soul of the nation occurred in areas unrelated to political reform. It happened in the workplace, in the union hall, in the office, at the cinema, in our homes and in our bedrooms. The victories at the voting booth, within the courst, in the state houses and in congress were simply milestones.
They are more like mile markers along the journey of cultural evolution.
And this is something folks on the right understand far better than we do, the real battle, the real struggle is always cultural. One who controls the symbols, the myths and the language controls the economic, social and political realities of a country, tribe or organization.
Only a few centuries ago a healer was a woman, and a garden was where we raised our food. Middle age was for most folks the mid-twenties and woman had their first child by age 15. A tan meant you worked outside and fat people were considered wealthy. But now if you check in with these cultural symbols we find different messages and meanings. The culture has changed.
But often we humans lag behind cultural changes; and surprise-surprise, we often resist change. The resistance is both natural and ultimately helpful in the long run. Some changes we make during periods of stress need to be resisted till we turn the corner and attain some perspective. But some changes are necessary and require us as a society to take a leap of faith.
Even those of us who think of ourselves as welcoming of change, resist the very changes we bring about. And this is important to remember. Since as mammals we fall back out of habit or instinct to what we consider as the tried and the true. We have to be willing to do more than support a change, we must embrace it at all levels. Otherwise, as we are beginning to discover, any change for the better can be reversed, almost overnight, if we are not paying attention.
And that is what we are facing in this country, right here and right now. We are all watching in a kind of stunned silence, as a century of progress seems to be withering away. We are like the next victim in those horror movies. You know the ones where you feel like yelling at the screen, “Wake up, he is standing right behind you!”
But we cannot wake up, no matter how hard we pinch ourselves, no matter how many letters, blogs , emails or signatures we collect. We seem to be walking in slow motion directly into the path of the disaster, right into the clutches of the menacing beast.
Why is that? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
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Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".