/////reverb
it ought to be more like breathing…
I dreamed last night that humanity managed to dismantle the inconceivable global exploitation of women and girls — and every other critical world problem resolved itself almost instantly in the wake of this correction to civilization.
I don’t remember how the horror began (dreams are selective like that), but I saw an enormous and convoluted line of unidentifiable dominoes — one after the other swiftly and inexorably falling into the next, falling until at last one fell against the still standing domino of women’s human equality.
And the falling stopped. This time, this particular domino did not go down. The sudden halt of the inevitable fall shocked the system so unexpectedly, that the reverberation produced while standing fast against the terrible onslaught created a reverse energy, goading all of the other dominoes to stand back up. All of it happened so quickly, that at first I could only identify the tenacious domino that would not go down. But as the others regained equilibrium I recognized them too, even as their fallen names were changing from poverty and violence and a thousand other headlines, to their upright names of wholeness and freedom and a thousand other cries.
Any nation’s degree of civilization and nobility may be measured by how women and girls are thriving or failing to thrive. Forget the notion of a “key indicator” — this goes way beyond that rather cute idea. The toxic dimension of life which gender occupies, constructs a peculiar place by virtue of its very existence.
If any ingredient in our human design was meant to be a “no-brainer”, then co-equal genders designed for delight and rescue from aloneness ought to occupy an inviolable post in the foundation for living on this planet. It ought to be more like breathing than the fragile holocaust it has become.
Perhaps it’s the critical post of human history — critical enough that every other grave human issue may find feet in the wake of its healing.
(with thanks to my mentor Ed Friedman — who told stories about dominoes and so much else…)
