a nun's life

the lastest intriguing blog that i stumbled upon:

http://anunslife.org/

i like what i'm reading. thanks sisters!

a.path.about.love.

thanks goes out to my dear friend soph who reminded me of the brilliance that is bell hooks. here's what bell hooks (her name is intentionally spelled without capital letters!) has to remind us all about today,

"If I were really asked to define myself, I wouldn't start with race; I wouldn't start with blackness; I wouldn't start with gender; I wouldn't start with feminism. I would start with stripping down to what fundamentally informs my life, which is that I'm a seeker on the path. I think of feminism, and I think of anti-racist struggles as part of it. But where I stand spiritually is, steadfastly, on a path about love."

word sister.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judi-jennings/womens-rights-and-human-r_b_269775.html

"

mutter-vater, vater-mutter

i know, they're the cutest ever.
and lookin' so good after half a century! work.it.'rents.
[downtown l.a. -- november '08]

Sunday Magazine

Motherlode: Changing the Language of Fatherhood

By By Lisa Belkin

Published: June 13, 2009

In a guest blog, Paul Hankes Drielsma writes about words -- the ones we need to stop using, and the ones we need to use more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
i just read a good, thought-provoking blog (found on the nytimes home page, linked in the title above) about fatherhood and motherhood. and the language we use when referring to each role. it's written by a dad who really is embodying an equal share in parenting but also admitting the obstacles he's up against when it comes to the way our culture views dads. this is actually feminism here. it absolutely is. because to seek equality between the sexes, marriage and parenting must be examined; they're both essential to the human condition. for true partnership to exist, there must be a sharing of responsibility and care. this dad gets it. he says he's not trying to play the 'woe is me' card, and i'll admit some of his concerns do borderline 'woe is me', but he's got a point. a good point. language absolutely shapes us. in every way.

my dad stayed home (while my mom worked full-time) with me during some of my most formative years. the same with my sister. it was kinda' just normal to us. and believe me, as i've gotten older, i've realized what a gift that was/is. my parents made a partnership in marriage just seem like the way marriage worked. there were times where they even shared a job; one taught classes in the morning while the other taught classes in the afternoon, and then they stayed home with their daughters during their off hours each day. they shared. truly shared responsibility and care.

but, one thing our family still had to learn was the way in which we referred to my dad's years of being the full-time, at-home parent. we called him 'mr. mom.' (he called himself this too) when telling a story from those years. and there 's the best of intentions in that terminology, but i think i see now (thanks to a conversation last year with melissa burt-gracik) that such a title belittles my dad's service to his family. such a title makes being a 'mother' the normative experience as a parent. that's exactly what this blog is talking about. why is mothering viewed as parenting while fathering is, at best, viewed as babysitting? such good questions to examine.

my dad is mr. dad. and as a stay-at-home dad, he did everything a stay-at-home mom typically does, but he did it as him. as a father. so as my parents celebrate 29 years of marraige today (congrats mutti und vati!), i must thank them both for the true mutuality, shared responsibility, and real partnership they've shown to me and my sister through the years.

one week from today, much of the western world will celebrate 'father's day', and that's great, but let's be mindful about how we speak about fathers and their roles in families (of course, same goes for mothers). may we not trap our sons and our daughters into set ideas of what a dad does as being so different from what a mom does. let's exemplify in our relationships and in our language that moms and dads are both parents... with both playing an equal and active role in their child's life.

thanks 'rents; you're the best. i'm celebrating with you both today even though there's an ocean and some land between us. i sure do appreciate you. the you that is you both: together. for life. all my love.

deine,
tochter nummer eins

fair pay today

Sitting in the Chicago O'Hare airport this afternoon, enjoying some CNN time before I'm out of the country for the next six months, I was silently rejoicing over the legislation that President Obama signed today.  It's a great start; I'm very impressed.  Lilly Ledbetter is the woman -- way to go, team.  Her ten-year fight has helped pave the way for equal pay between men and women, and it should also help to eliminate future discrimination in the workplace.

Read the fully story here:

Day of vindication for grandma as pay law signed

women: educated but still no job?

Here's a NYTimes article that describes the latest statistics of women in leadership in various countries. The US is definitely lagging behind most of Europe as well as behind other notable nations throughout the world. Get with the program, yo! The article states that women are just as educated as men, but there is not an equal share of leadership that would reflect this shared level of education. It does mention that Norway is one of the leaders when it comes to equality of the sexes - what up home roots. Here are two noteworthy quotes from the article:

“The world’s women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making,” said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum.

&:

“A nation’s competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its female talent. To maximize its competitiveness and development potential, each country should strive for gender equality.”

I don't know if competitiveness should be our final goal, but I guess that's capitalism for you. Nonetheless, the quote still raises a good point - we must ask, first of all, whether we are offering true and equal education for women (in many world areas, education is not even an option for women), and second of all, whether we are then utilizing this female talent. Even in the US, we still have a long ways to go with this second one.

Specifically looking at the Church, how many women are currently being educated and supposedly "prepared" for a vocation that would serve the Church (say as a Pastor), and yet we find virtually no women in positions of leadership in the Church? Are we utilizing our female talent? I can't say with confidence that we are. Because in looking at the Church, and looking at very the education that prepares one for life and service to the Church, I think we're failing in both arenas: more often then not, girls and young women don't even grow up with the slightest notion that they too could serve the Church in leadership (we're talking more than just organizing the craft fairs and bake sales); we don't make space for exploration, where young girls could even dream about the possibility of serving as a pastor someday. So for the second account, it goes without saying that we aren't utilizing our female talent; if women haven't been able to simply consider pursuing vocational ministry in their education, then how can we even utilize them, even if we have the best of intentions? This ought not be! The Church must first show, in truth, to both boys and girls, young men and young women, that BOTH genders get to dream and consider a life of 'ministry' - with equal opportunity to serve as a Pastor. Then after that, we must follow through to Educate AND Utilize; the two must go hand in hand. [But then we're left with a little bit of a chicken-egg scenario... how can we show this truth to kids and youth if we aren't educating and utilizing our female potential in the immediate sense...?]

Homes, villages, cities, and countries are often carried on the backs of women... almost always in all of the behind-the-scenes work. Gender equality means a sharing of both the 'behind the scenes' work as well as positions of leadership and influence.

You can read the rest of the article here:

WORLD

Women Gain in Education but Not Power, Study Finds

By REUTERS

Published: November 13, 2008

A study found that women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, though their access to education and health care is nearly equal.