I’m absolutely flabbergasted to say the least. I’m shocked, sad and disgusted. I have no words to describe how I feel about the state of the world. When I watch the news, it is simply overwhelming. I usually end up on thing that really affects me and then I can’t seem to turn away from it. Right now I’m just floored by how the women of Afghanistan are being treated. Are we going backwards as a civilization? We are so bipolar, going from one extreme way of being to another. WHAT is happening to us!
We have advanced so quickly in technology. I mean, look at us, we’re conquering the UNIVERSE. Or are we just destroying it? We don’t care if we have astronauts stranded in space. We don’t care who’s being bombed as long as we have our Starbucks coffee. We have AI threatening to improve our lives. (?) I’ve heard the arguments, but I’m still choosing to write my own Just For Kicks even though AI could do it, because I know AI won’t be able to replicate my accent coming through!
The latest news that I’m upset about comes from the Taliban deciding that women are not allowed to talk in public, much less sing or recite a poem, God forbid. ARE they NUTS ??? They have decided to go back to enforcing Sharia Law. This law happened so long ago that it’s no longer applicable in today’s reality, yet here it still is.
People confuse women’s “rights” as some sort of attack on men, that somehow we emasculate them by being our advocates, our own cheerleaders. In this day and age, WOMEN shouldn’t have to fight to have a place on this planet. HELLOOOO !!!!! This is our home, too. I think we should not even have this conversation any more.
It wasn’t long ago that Gloria Steinem a feminist activist, stood up for women. She was a very loud and involved “activist “…… The interesting thing is that she was a Playboy Bunny. Did you know that? We can be duplicitous. We can be in touch with our body and be brilliant. They are not mutually exclusive. And you can even do things just for the experience!
Gloria stood up for women who suffered genital mutilation. I am inspired by her activism. Who can explain the roulette of life: where you are born, what education you get, what are the expectations of you from your family, your community, what are you allowed to do or not do? We don’t know how we land where we land. It’s Russian Roulette. It’s Karma. Is it destiny?
The world has been around for 4.5 billion years and it was only in the last century that women were beginning to get the right to vote, to make their own decisions, have their own careers, etc… at least in the Western world. But something is wrong with this picture… Don’t you think?
On the other hand, we are blessed that we live in Santa Fe, no doubt the Land of the Enchantment. I’m so thankful for that.
I was so brought down from all of the news and my girlfriend could hear it in my voice, so she invited me over to her house for a drink. Her house has an entrance to the driveway with a dirt bump to prevent flooding. Well, I miscalculated the driveway and my car, which is very low, got stuck right on top of the dirt bump. My car was like a big whale in the middle of the driveway. My friend and I tried to move the car but it wouldn’t budge. I kept spinning the wheels but that’s about all that would happen. To make matters worse, I was blocking the road and it was pouring rain. This was on Cerro Gordo. If you are familiar with Santa Fe, you can visualize this scene! My friend and I were soaking wet. We both are very resilient women but not when it comes to this type of situation. A lovely neighbor came to try to help us. She brought a shovel and we did our best removing the wet dirt under the tires, thinking that was a good idea … NOPE, the car wouldn’t move an inch. Then there we were three soaking wet women with a shovel and a stuck car.
Cars would go by not offering to help. I didn’t blame them. I would probably zoom right past, too! The rain was coming down, the roads were muddy and my car was totally stuck.
But then a car stopped and a very nice looking young man offered to help us. When he got out of his car it was like seeing this slow motion footage of this attractive supermodel superhero man. He asked, “Can I help you ladies?”
“YESSSSSS, por favor!”
It took him a few minutes to evaluate the situation and to make a long story short, he had the car unstuck in no time. We would have gladly waited longer.
The three of us fell in love with him. We giggled our way back into the house and drank wine, ate food and chatted the rest of the evening!
What a different experience for me here than in Afghanistan. We were free to drive ourselves to the house of a woman, be outside in the clothing we chose to wear, and shine our grateful and smiling faces and speak openly and directly to this handsome man. We even had the audacity to giggle about how exciting it was to have this hunk of a man help us. He didn’t make us feel badly nor did he act like we shouldn’t have gotten stuck nor did he ask us what we were doing out in public.
So different.
Simply put, when all is said and done, here we have the freedom to be ourselves in so many ways. Something that is not to be taken for granted …NOT ANY MORE!!