Are you content with the condition of the world? Does it bother you that children go to school in the morning and are shot at by their school mates? Do you wonder what has caused so many teenage suicides? Why are schools promoting birth control and abortions without advising parents or obtaining parental consent?
Our children are confused. We preach one thing and than do another. We give birth to our children and hand them over to a daycare organization or a television to raise them.
Does it make sense that we tell our daughters to say no to sex yet they are bombarded on with daily messages that they will not be "cool" or "liked" if they don't dress, act, talk and look sexy. Does it make sense to our daughters and sons that we say we are so offended with the certain images of women and girls in advertisements, tv and movies but we continue to purchase and consume the very products whose advertisements offend us?
Are you comfortable with the fact that almost every mother and father (especially fathers) on television are portrayed to be bumbling idiots. Dad can't plug in the toaster without blowing up the house and Mom is an emasculating Robo-Woman.
Every day another politician is being outed for sordid extra-marital affairs, cheating on taxes or stealing government funds to pay for great vacations in exotic places. Our children see us gripe and complain about these dishonest public servants but do they witness taking action?
"Apathy is not the most dramatic form of suicide, just the most common." William J. O'Malley
What are we going to do to make this a better world for our children and grandchildren? Henri Amiel wrote, "Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family, she carries it's destiny in the folds of her mantle." In my opinion, Mr. Amiel is right.
Men tend to define themselves according to how autonomous they are. Women always wonder why they won't "commit" and I am sure it is because to "commit" is to lose one's separateness and therefore, one's identity. Women, on the other hand, define ourselves by our relationships. Unconsciously we believe, "I have a relationship therefore I am!" How many women stay in terrible relationships because unconsciously we believe that if we don't have even a lousy relationship we might cease to exist.
Now, one might think that this is a weakness but it is, in my humble opinion, one of our greatest strengths. It is because of the way we define ourselves that we are the caretakers of the earth. We are connected, we feel compassion, we nurture! We know in our hearts and souls that if any thing is wrong with one baby, one family or even one lake or river, that something is wrong with us all.
We just need to teach our daughters that the first relationship they have is with God, Goddess, All There Is, The Great Spirit, the Higher Power. The next relationship is with their self. Next, the relationship they have with Mom and Dad will accompany them for the rest of their lives so show them how important they are, how much they are loved and respected. Honor your daughters. If they never witness respect and honor they will never recognize it or the lack of it.
Look at how connected we are! We menstruate on the same cycle as the moon and tides, and in the days before artificial light and synthetic birth control, we cycled with the other women in our huts and caves. We invented villages, agriculture, math! We are good!
Somewhere, sometime, somehow we lost our footing. We need to regain it. I'm not suggesting that we grab the reins from men and take control but I am suggesting that we put the focus back on our children, our elderly, our families, our communities. We turned our backs on the living and breathing and have surrendered to the inanimate, the governments, the corporations, the organizations. When did we decide that it is more important to "give" our children stuff than to share ourselves with them?
