A FAREWELL TO SUMMER
A leaf falls on the dusty road
The trees are changing hue.
The stream that last month swiftly flowed
Wrings moisture from the dew.
The birds that whistled with the dawn
Have silenced now their song.
Their chicks that then were newly born
Have safely moved along.
Even the sun withdraws her face
And veils herself in cloud.
As though the season makes her chaste
Her character less proud.
The child who played with carefree joy
To school inclines his mind.
That freedom loving little boy
Must soon his spirit bind.
But sorrow not the passing light
Look rather to the shade
For God has worked it out just right;
A perfect balance made.
Creation is both light and dark
The one reveals the other.
Syzygy will highlight the spark
Uniformity would smother.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Women's Liberation
This is an extract from an article I presented to the Philosophers' Cafe in White Rock on November 12, 2008.
THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE was called by Betty Friedan "the problem that has no name" and by that she was referring to the dilemma, appearing in the 60's, when all women seemed to have everything they wanted, labour saving devices and a lot of spare time yet they were languishing in the suburbs, bored and unhappy. Women were blamed for this malaise and made to feel guilty for it. Society expected women to repect the constraints of their biology and find all their fulfillment in marriage and children and, at the time, it seemed surprising that this was not happening. She goes on in her 1963 book to give her theory about how this happened. She describes how men returned from the war to run the magazine industry and gradually changed the image of women from career girl and adventurer to domestic diva, and perfect mother. She blames the Freudian sexualization of women which became embedded in the culture and typecast career women as unnatural monsters with "penis envy" and also cites Margaret Mead as contributor to the return of the old image of glorified femininity. Gradually, in the 50s and early 60s the gains of the Feminist Movement and the call for equal education for women were overwritten by a call to save femininity and the home.
Friedan says, "There is only one way for women to reach full human potential - by participating in the mainstream of society, by exercising their own voice in all the decisions shaping that society."
We have just witnessed the people of America, women, all races, young and old participating in this process and it seems we may all have begun to awake finally from this "mystique" of modernity -which I believe we were all subject to. We have been sleeping in a stupor induced by materialism-lulled to sleep by the conviction that we could do nothing to improve things. Finally there is hope that we may all emerge from this stifling cocoon. Women will take hold of their destiny, as will coloured people and white men and fulfill their true potential. We have been bored for too long! Thank you Obama for showing us the way.
THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE was called by Betty Friedan "the problem that has no name" and by that she was referring to the dilemma, appearing in the 60's, when all women seemed to have everything they wanted, labour saving devices and a lot of spare time yet they were languishing in the suburbs, bored and unhappy. Women were blamed for this malaise and made to feel guilty for it. Society expected women to repect the constraints of their biology and find all their fulfillment in marriage and children and, at the time, it seemed surprising that this was not happening. She goes on in her 1963 book to give her theory about how this happened. She describes how men returned from the war to run the magazine industry and gradually changed the image of women from career girl and adventurer to domestic diva, and perfect mother. She blames the Freudian sexualization of women which became embedded in the culture and typecast career women as unnatural monsters with "penis envy" and also cites Margaret Mead as contributor to the return of the old image of glorified femininity. Gradually, in the 50s and early 60s the gains of the Feminist Movement and the call for equal education for women were overwritten by a call to save femininity and the home.
Friedan says, "There is only one way for women to reach full human potential - by participating in the mainstream of society, by exercising their own voice in all the decisions shaping that society."
We have just witnessed the people of America, women, all races, young and old participating in this process and it seems we may all have begun to awake finally from this "mystique" of modernity -which I believe we were all subject to. We have been sleeping in a stupor induced by materialism-lulled to sleep by the conviction that we could do nothing to improve things. Finally there is hope that we may all emerge from this stifling cocoon. Women will take hold of their destiny, as will coloured people and white men and fulfill their true potential. We have been bored for too long! Thank you Obama for showing us the way.
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