"Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!"
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."
-- Author Unknown
Several conversations over the last few days had me remembering something I heard while having some high spirited communion with my family recently. Actually, I've heard it often amongst this set of souls set adrift after being sold into bondage, who have found back one another in this time, to share bread and fellowship. One man, not much older than me yet still esteemed as an Elder, had been ministering some upright reasoning while the rest of the group was sitting down to lunch. "All Nations should and shall be judged by the way in which its treats its' women and children." Simple and plain, truth without pretense.
So as I was wrapped up in conversation, hearing stories that should never have to be uttered by any soul, and especially by the women whom I cherish most dearly, this quote once again popped into my head. It is a great travesty of nature to see how women are repeatedly ill treated, whether physically, emotionally, psychologically and or spiritually and still they quietly show such resolve. They are mostly hard pressed to become broken, frail examples of true womanly strength. This happens everywhere in the world that I can think of; with sistren around the globe, I am satisfied that their words prove my thoughts.
Something as seemingly simple to a man as verbal chastising and silent though effective harassment, can be as wounding, as crippling to a woman's spirit as rape can. In fact in my assessment maybe more so, as physical injuries heal quickly and monsters get their day in time; but wounds that run deep along the truncated subway lines of our souls known only to loved ones, can take generations to heal. And those monsters, breed of their own will. Much easier and satisfying to teach our daughters how to pay attention to their surroundings and if necessary defend themselves, than to show them to fear love and to not fight to live in every moment.
Don't believe I am taking rape lightly, mind you. It is a war against women that is devilish in nature and oft times sinisterly campaigned. Ask most men what they would do if it their child or wife, sister or niece and so on, was brutally raped and more often than not, you should see the seeds of that same psychotic rage. Given that, still I wonder how it's possible that while everyone claims such great humanity and moral superiority from still more, we still haven't eradicated that beastly nature. It most certainly isn't Godly.
All the while, women get up in the morning or night, ready and steady their families; juggle work and health, when both are available and affordable; have the children that men at times laud as championship trophies; tend to people that they do not know, with kind words and gentle touch; pray sincerely for family and friends near and far, both liked and unliked and just plain display a strength and dignity that I eluded to in last nights blog. They are royal in every sense of the word. They bear the world on their shoulders alongside Atlas, and still manage to bear the generations to manage it.
Ok, I guess it's about time to say that I'm not pointing fingers because I know that there are three more pointing right back at me. I am not claiming to have been perfect all my years, I pulled pigtails and bruised a few egos along the way, and maybe even now I fall short on occasion. And I don't want to get into the debate about whose culture, this or that. I can say that most of the ways in which I hear these sistren speak of being mistreated, are foreign to me. Even still more foreign since the days I made my declaration to stand for freedom and redemption internationally.
No matter how strong the women in our lives are, no matter how much a tea bag shows its strength when it gets into hot water, there is a point at which the bag can no longer offer of herself and tears apart. Let us treat them and, of course the children, with upright intent and care always. Let their love, given us buy them from the moments of conception, be returned not simply as a way into their hearts but also a blanket to warm their souls.
Follow me on Twitter@JahKwasiAbahu
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."
-- Author Unknown
Several conversations over the last few days had me remembering something I heard while having some high spirited communion with my family recently. Actually, I've heard it often amongst this set of souls set adrift after being sold into bondage, who have found back one another in this time, to share bread and fellowship. One man, not much older than me yet still esteemed as an Elder, had been ministering some upright reasoning while the rest of the group was sitting down to lunch. "All Nations should and shall be judged by the way in which its treats its' women and children." Simple and plain, truth without pretense.
So as I was wrapped up in conversation, hearing stories that should never have to be uttered by any soul, and especially by the women whom I cherish most dearly, this quote once again popped into my head. It is a great travesty of nature to see how women are repeatedly ill treated, whether physically, emotionally, psychologically and or spiritually and still they quietly show such resolve. They are mostly hard pressed to become broken, frail examples of true womanly strength. This happens everywhere in the world that I can think of; with sistren around the globe, I am satisfied that their words prove my thoughts.
Something as seemingly simple to a man as verbal chastising and silent though effective harassment, can be as wounding, as crippling to a woman's spirit as rape can. In fact in my assessment maybe more so, as physical injuries heal quickly and monsters get their day in time; but wounds that run deep along the truncated subway lines of our souls known only to loved ones, can take generations to heal. And those monsters, breed of their own will. Much easier and satisfying to teach our daughters how to pay attention to their surroundings and if necessary defend themselves, than to show them to fear love and to not fight to live in every moment.
Don't believe I am taking rape lightly, mind you. It is a war against women that is devilish in nature and oft times sinisterly campaigned. Ask most men what they would do if it their child or wife, sister or niece and so on, was brutally raped and more often than not, you should see the seeds of that same psychotic rage. Given that, still I wonder how it's possible that while everyone claims such great humanity and moral superiority from still more, we still haven't eradicated that beastly nature. It most certainly isn't Godly.
All the while, women get up in the morning or night, ready and steady their families; juggle work and health, when both are available and affordable; have the children that men at times laud as championship trophies; tend to people that they do not know, with kind words and gentle touch; pray sincerely for family and friends near and far, both liked and unliked and just plain display a strength and dignity that I eluded to in last nights blog. They are royal in every sense of the word. They bear the world on their shoulders alongside Atlas, and still manage to bear the generations to manage it.
Ok, I guess it's about time to say that I'm not pointing fingers because I know that there are three more pointing right back at me. I am not claiming to have been perfect all my years, I pulled pigtails and bruised a few egos along the way, and maybe even now I fall short on occasion. And I don't want to get into the debate about whose culture, this or that. I can say that most of the ways in which I hear these sistren speak of being mistreated, are foreign to me. Even still more foreign since the days I made my declaration to stand for freedom and redemption internationally.
No matter how strong the women in our lives are, no matter how much a tea bag shows its strength when it gets into hot water, there is a point at which the bag can no longer offer of herself and tears apart. Let us treat them and, of course the children, with upright intent and care always. Let their love, given us buy them from the moments of conception, be returned not simply as a way into their hearts but also a blanket to warm their souls.
Follow me on Twitter@JahKwasiAbahu
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