Know your language and sources
A new/old World Order: 1, 2 , 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 8a, 8aFR & 9
After a 3-part mini-series, A natural World Order (# 4, 7 & 8 in the subtitle index) correcting some of the ways progress lost us, let’s continue the series A new/old World Order (# 1–3, 5 & 6 in the subtitle index) with a new look at the language of patriarchy, or lack thereof.
Part II of this mini-series here, Part IV is here, and the next series resumes here.
While I re-join the Catholic faith (see here) and pray a lot (my sponsor and I compose our own twice a day), I also maintain my Quaker membership and gave ministry using my latest prayer (Quakers don’t have priests, we each can speak if moved to by the Spirit and offer what’s called ministry) on my current situation and an inspiration I had from Mass the day before (I go to Saturday evening Mass so I can attend Sunday morning Quaker Meeting).
As a recap, I left my wife early this year, my daughter then left me (long story) and I now plan to help co-found an orphanage in the Diocese of Colorado Springs in the US, after a long gestation period mentioned here.
To paraphrase what I said that morning: “… I went to Mass and was inspired after that to reach out to my daughter and wife to address mistrust and reiterate my faithfulness however different it be. For I learned how atonement is an opener to redemption if not forgiveness. I just realised that faith and forgiveness are always on standby as a potential gift by those who have faith toward the who don’t. For we are all God’s children in whatever form or consciousness, even hidden. So following Quaker practice and inspired by Catholic faith, I decided to practice these lessons learned in my day-to-day. I will stay Quaker here but join the Catholic Church there. Thank you Friends.”
“Friend”, capitalised, is what Quakers call themselves, as their full name is “Religious Society of Friends” (web) [1].
What followed was amazing. Another Friend ministered on a prayer by French XVIII c. cleric François Fénelon — he was exiled from Paris to Cambrai in far northern France for associating with The Quietists, equivalent to early Quakers in France — which ends with “Teach me to pray; may you yourself pray in me and through me” (here). While the quote refers to our Lord, in one instance God is addressed as “O Father!”. That lead to the speaker to apologise for that old-fashioned address.
This in turn elicited ministry by a French visitor, who quoted Françoise Dolto (Wikipedia), a French psychiatrist, who apparently studied why the Scriptures says “Father”. It turns out it is not patriarchy at all [2] but the fact a prayer is something that enters a person: in mythology, said the visitor, entering / giving is a male act, whereas absorbing / receiving is a female act [2]. Note that this exists outside the Christian realm. African drumming in W African Yoruba culture — I practised in Dallas 25 yrs. ago with Drums not Guns (Facebook, YouTube) in former Across the Street Bar in N Stonewall Terrace—a men’s drumming circle put energy into the earth, and women dancing in the middle drew energy out of the earth, in a festive cycle integrating all.
Note: cultures closer to nature are less confused, less separated from nature like we are here in the West: they understand the links between natural phenomena, that weather affects crops and animals and therefore humans no matter how well they can shelter and develop societal structures [4]. And they acknowledge a definite cause / effect, male / female, inductor / progenitor, seed / fruit etc. phenomenon. There is a directionality, like gazelles don’t hunt lions, females don’t get pregnant alone, or crops don’t create weather.
Bingo! My new/old world order here, based on downflow (L to R) of generating, and upflow (R to L) of nurturing, is thus correct in this context:
God ← → man ← → woman ← → child ← → animal ← → plant ← → microbe
And then after Meeting over coffee, I met another Friend who asked about my Catholic upbringing and why I left. He pointed to Leo Tolstoy’s lesser-known book A Confession (Goodreads) that distinguishes religion that’s easy from faith that’s not. We went onto the perceived misogyny of the Scriptures, which is non-existent of you read it carefully — one reason I’m reading the Bible now — Paul may appear so but is not if you read all of his work, and women witnessed Jesus exit from the sepulchre, but at the time writer’s couldn’t say that if they wanted it read. So it’s not sexism but copy-editing, and the Church is remedying that for ex by reinstating Mary Magdalen to her rightful place in the pantheon.
What my Friend was trying to say — in addition to the directionality of this the previous Friend mentioned — is that things are complicated, they are rarely as they seem, and a lot of nuancing is lost in today’s demagoguery and rhetoric.
1: another famous shortening is LA or Los Angeles for El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles… so long that folks only remebered the end!
2: so feminists are wrong as discussed here. I later said “feminist women too busy watching for misogynist booby traps” (§ 7 here), and another example is seeing patriarchy where it isn’t. For example in “workman”, ‘man’ comes from the Latin ‘manus’ — as in the hand, the person that does the work — and nothing to do with ‘man’ as in gender… As titled: “Know… your souces”!
3: did you know the origin of Yahweh in Old Testament and Torah is Wind of God, meaning its something you allow in the window of your soul as a religious experience, to paraphrase the speaker?
4: this Australian folk song illustrates how out of step British agricultural practices were with Australian climate in the Outback: YouTube and lyrics.
