Bear has been important to human mythology and story for thousands of years. Some feel that Bear is the oldest European deity, as bones and skulls of bears have been found lovingly arranged on niches found in caves across Europe. The first written sentence from the Old Europe Script, invented around 6,000 years ago reads, âThe Bear Goddess and the Bird Goddess are the Bear Goddess indeed.
Jewish Hair, Witch Hair, and the Problem of Identity by Jill Hammer
This is a time of increased vulnerability for many minority populations in the United States: people of color, immigrants, LGBT people, native peoples. The policies and rhetoric of the current administration have left all these groups exposed to hostility. Women are also feeling the pressure, as the gender split in voting in the past election suggests. And, Jews also are facing increased visibility. In addition to the murders in Pittsburgh, anti-Semitic incidents around the country have increased in the last few years. All this has me thinking about visibility, chosen and unchosen.
My father, an Ashkenazi Jew with curly black hair, green eyes and dark skin, came from an immigrant family that arrived here in the early 20th century from the region of Poland known as Galicia. His mother in particular valued assimilation into American identity, and prized blond hair as a sign of this identity– she in fact later dyed her black hair blond. His aunt had blond hair and it was considered a family coup. (Thereâs much to say here about developing an assumed American identity of whiteness, as well as the presumption of Christianity.) When I was a little girl, I had blond hair and blue eyes. My father used to call me his blond-haired, blue-eyed girl.
âNo,â I would insist. âMy hair is brown and my eyes are green.â Continue reading “Jewish Hair, Witch Hair, and the Problem of Identity by Jill Hammer”
The Gifts of Life: Do We Remember? by Carol P. Christ
Strawberries shaped my view of a world full of gifts simply scattered at your feet. A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward, you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears.
Sweetgrass belongs to Mother Earth. Sweetgrass pickers collect properly and respectfully, for their own use and the needs of their community. They return a gift to the earth.
That is the fundamental nature of gifts: they move, and their value increases with their passage. The fields made a gift of berries to us and we made a gift of them to our father. The more something is shared, the greater its value becomes. This is hard to grasp for societies steeped in notions of private property, where others are, by definition, excluded from sharing.
The essence of a gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 27-28
Thanksgiving has come and gone. We gave thanks for the food placed on the table and for the family or friends who shared it with us.
In our culture giving thanks can feel forced: I remember how my brothers and cousins and I hated to be asked to say grace at Grandma’s house. When we have not been taught, it can be difficult for us to understand that nothing is ours by right. Continue reading “The Gifts of Life: Do We Remember? by Carol P. Christ”
Unpacking the Midterm Elections by Anjeanette LeBoeuf
As the dust is settling, with the mixture of finishing counting ballots and races being conceded, the true realities of what happened in the 2018 Midterm Elections is taking concrete form. From the earliest hours of November 6, numbers showed that both Democrats and Republicans, old and new, were taking to the polls, flexing their democratic rights, and showing the political regimes from local, state, and federal levels that the current state of being is not acceptable.
Continue reading “Unpacking the Midterm Elections by Anjeanette LeBoeuf”
And the Pies! Ongoing Grateful Thanks for Tradition by Marie Cartier
In November 2017 I wrote about pie baking.Â
And in November 2015 I also wrote about pie baking.
In November 2016, I was destroyed by the âelectionâ and wrote a post in November of that year âFor Strong Womenâ just to help many of us keep going.
Continue reading “And the Pies! Ongoing Grateful Thanks for Tradition by Marie Cartier”
My Original Uncultured Mother by Deanne Quarrie
In the earliest of times, I believe humans did not see themselves as separate from all that was around them. All of life was interdependent. I see this in my own practice today. When we are born, we are born to a mother. Our lives are solely dependent on her for survival. We are birthed by her, nourished by her, protected by her, and sometimes forced out to experience on our own, by her. She is at first, our own Original Uncultured Mother. Once we move from her shelter, we begin to experience our world in the same way, looking not only for what nourishes, what protects and what shelters, but also for what we need to be mindful of for our own safety, those forces far out of our control. Those forces, which were uncontrollable, the ancients held in high esteem, and honored with reverence.
Continue reading “My Original Uncultured Mother by Deanne Quarrie”
Identity Politics by Gina Messina
This past week my daughter, Sarah and I had a conversation about God:
Sarah: Dad says God is a myth. He doesnât exist.
Me: Well none of us really know who God is because weâre humans. And besides, God is definitely not a man.
Sarah: I really think that God is a monkey.
Me (trying to keep a straight face): Why do you think God is a monkey?
Sarah: Because all people came from monkeys and God created us so that makes a lot of sense. It also explains why God is doing such a bad job.
Me: Why do you think God is doing a bad job?
Sarah: Well, Donald Trump is presidentâŚ
At nine years old, my daughter is quite the critical thinker and very invested in knowing what is happening in our country. She has strong feelings about Trump â especially his treatment of women and policy to separate families at the border. She asks why someone gets to be president if s/he does not care about everyone in the nation. It is a good question. Iâd like to take credit here, but Sarah is simply paying attention to our world and making her own conclusions â logical ones at that.Â
***
While Trump supporters chant the political slogan âMake America Great Again,â women are wondering when there was ever a time where our human rights were acknowledged, and especially those of women of color. Women have been consistently disenfranchised throughout history and have had to fight for the most basic rights granted to white men. Continue reading “Identity Politics by Gina Messina”
Witness by Sara Wright
Witness
It was dark
when I first heard Her
whooing overhead
bearing witness,
ushering in
the First of the
Harvest Moons.
The seasonal wheel turning towards
ripe fruit and swelling seeds.
Summerâs Bounty.
This goddess
is cloaked
in feathery mole brown splendor
a Sphinx flying
through the night.
S/he heralds the
Gift of Water
answering earnest prayersâŚ
As âChanging Womanâ she brings rain
to soften cracked desert groundâŚ
Hidden in a tangle of branches
Owl observes my approachâŚ
When I pass
under the Cottonwood tree
she takes flight in silence.
lands on a snag –
luminous eyes glowing.
Fiery embers
sweeten the night.
Her beneficent
Presence floods me
with wonder â
Oh, I know Her well.
Love seeps through
a body punctured by holes.
Seen at last by my Beloved
I give thanks for Owl
whooo calls my name.
Let Us Proclaim the God Who Bleeds Now by Carol P. Christ
we need a god who bleeds now
a god whose wounds are not
some small male vengeance
some pitiful concession to humility
a desert swept with dryin marrow in honor of the lord
we need a god who bleeds
spreads her lunar vulva & showers us in shades of scarlet
thick & warm like the breath of her
our mothers tearing to let us in
this place breaks open
like our mothers bleeding
the planet is heaving mourning our ignorance
the moon tugs the seas
to hold her/to hold her
embrace swelling hills/i am
not wounded i am bleeding to life
we need a god who bleeds now
whose wounds are not the end of anything
–Ntozake Shange
Continue reading “Let Us Proclaim the God Who Bleeds Now by Carol P. Christ”
The Hate U Give by Esther Nelson
These days I live in a perpetual state of simmering outrage given the popular support of the âgoings onâ and happenings within our current administration. The lies, the deceit, the xenophobia, the racism, the misogyny, the homophobia, the anti-intellectualismâthings that have been around a good long time, but now seem to have settled in comfortably with those who have the power to keep it all in place. Iâm discouraged.
But then, thereâs this:
The Hate U Give, a YA (Young Adult) novel authored by Angie Thomas, spent 50 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list after its publication in February 2017. The book has received numerous awards and also has enjoyed an immense popularity. It has also generated considerable controversy.
The following is the authorâs profile from Amazonâs website: Â âAngie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books.â
