Ladies, it’s up to us and the real men who love and support us
We live in perilous times still! Humanity needs the inspired hearts and wills of sane women now. This has always been the truth. But today, for the first time in history, we can visually bear witness to the pain and suffering of others seven worlds away.
Like it or not, we now have a front-row seats to all this absurd misery live and in high-definition colour on our TVs at homes; on our smartphones and tablets; on magazine covers at the checkout lane; and even at the airport while we wait for our flight to board. There is literally no escape from the constant storm of images and disagreeable news.
We who are privileged to live in the West can witness with our own eyes the heart-wrenching, unfortunate, intimate struggles of others, especially of women, girls, and children. We’re neck deep in their pain.
And because we can bear witness, challenges have been thrown at our feet. Sisters of the West, we did not ask for these challenges, but nonetheless, here they are at our feet. If we’re women who have the good fortune to be living in the West, life has summoned us. We have a responsibility to own and accept the challenge(s).
Why? Well, there is at least two goodness-based human reasons:
- Because we’re alive. And doesn’t life have a responsibility to Life? And what would we desire of Life to do for us if we were the ones buried deep in miserable circumstances we didn’t choose?
- Because we’re decent human beings with a soul and conscience. At least, God, I hope so.
And just who are we responsible to? Well, we’re responsible to three things: (1) ourselves (you); (2) the future; and (3) the sisterhood.
You
Yes, you.
Because our individual choices have weight and reach even when we cannot see it or touch it. And wise choices and actions have the potential to come back and sprinkle unexpected blessings where they first took root.
What’s more, we give birth to the future.
The future: Our babies
Only a woman is able to carry and birth new life — the future. And it is part of a woman’s intrinsic DNA to nurture not only our babies but also the other people we invite into our circle of concern and love as well. And sometimes, we have been known to do this at the expense of our needs and wants.
No, I’m not advocating that we deny our well-being for others all the time. We are here and we matter too. We must seek balance and ways to nurture ourselves so that the well does not run dry, and we can continue the good work we were born to do and enjoy its fruit.
But the truth is: Women cannot deny that we are natural nurturers. Nurturing is a hallmark of womanhood. We are born to act in ways that support life, not destroy it.
And the value of this nurturing is that the next generation can use the rich compost that our wise choices and actions of today will leave behind to regenerate, to grow, and to thrive into perpetuity.
And then, there is:
The worldwide sisterhood
For all the women and young girls in Africa, in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia, and too many other places across our seven continents, who at this very moment are being sold into marriage or on the open market; raped in their homes or some stinking alley or brothel; and/or oppressed under the black boot of an ignorant patriarchy that finds zero value in them and tramples their spirit and their “pearls” with impunity.
Yes, we who can need to make the wise choices these women are denied by patriarchal oppression. We have a responsibility to not be frivolous with our good fortune.
The challenges at our feet
Kermit the Frog made a “career” lamenting the difficulties of being green. Well, he should try being a woman. There is nothing more difficult.
Women have been tyrannized in every way since the beginning of humanity. And we’re still being tyrannized thousands of years into the present.
We sisters of the West must bend down now and pick up a challenge. We must say something, do something for the greater good of all, not just the few.
When we have choice, we must choose wisely as if the sisterhood depends on it. Because it does.
FIRST, we must choose wisely the men who share our journey and father our babies. We must demand that men we choose climb up to meet and exceed our high standards, and we must refuse without fail to slither downwards to those men with low or no standards of integrity or decency. Ladies, we don’t have time for low-quality men who are nothing more than “breath and britches.”
We must choose wisely even when our souls and bodies cry out for comfort and understanding in the absence of light, and all we find is loneliness and despair.
We must choose wisely if there is ever to be a time in history where every woman in the sisterhood is victorious, thrives, and becomes the true director of her present, her future, and thusly, her history.
And here are two golden nuggets of inspiration from womanhood at its best in action:
Young Warriors: Malala and Greta
Let’s consider Malala Yousafzai. She became one of the bravest “women” ever at the tender age of 12 when she picked up a challenge and almost gave her life for believing that every young woman had the right to an education. Google her stirring story and be ready for your heart to be ripped opened.
And then, there’s Greta Thunberg. At the tender age of 15, this tiny ball of radical honesty and courage took up a challenge of another kind. Greta has the audacity to believe that we have a responsibility to respect nature and the well-being of our true home, planet Earth. She is still just a young girl and look what she’s accomplished and continues to do. Google her too and get ready to feel inspired into action.
How inspiring are these young women? And what can we do in our everyday lives today that is inspired and supports them and all the other brave, courageous women who have and are taking up the challenges of our times? It is up to each of us to open our eyes and actively look for ways to be humanity’s heroes.
Listen, our acceptance of responsibility is grossly overdue! These are dire, desperate, batsh*t times. Based on the hot mess the world is in right now (thanks, boys), it all seems so impossible, so pointless.
But for ourselves, our babies, the sisterhood, and all people, we who have been fortunate must pick up a challenge of choice and/or activism and make this clear to the world:
By God, we are here. Our voices matter. Our thoughts matter. We have so much sh*t to undo to ensure all God’s children — every. single. human. — enjoy liberty, justice, and kindness the length and width of their lives. And we mean business.
Yes, it is a tremendous challenge. Yes, it is all so overwhelming. Yes, it may be too late. But we have to try, right? Because that’s what we women have done from the birth of mankind. We sacrifice to make the impossible happen. We do what is necessary to feed our families. We roar in the face of fear to protect our babies and those we love. We do whatever it takes. We are heroes.
Humanity is at war with “things as they are.” Sh*t is coming undone, unraveling. This is good, this is bad, and it just is. And it is time for women and the real men who love us to show up with our mighty swords, our individual choices, and our actions for the good of all.
All of humanity is waiting on us.
P.S. If you are a woman who can be defined as a bitchy, stupid Karen (we’ve seen the videos); who believes in wacky conspiracy theories (yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene); who thinks the planet Earth revolves in your ar$e (yes, Meghan McCain); who supports the evil sh”t storm that is T***p; and/or who supports coups against democracy, please shut the f**k up and stop doing sh*t.
Well you tell it as it is especially your ending comments.☆☆☆ I’ll have to join you in whatever endeavor you take on!!! I’ll also need to Google the 2 women you mentioned.
Haha. 😍
Indeed. 😗