Spirituality of DFTBA 3: So is Everybody Else, continued

For Lent this year, I'm trying to make DFTBA (Don't Forget To Be Awesome) my spiritual discipline. Inspired by the Vlogbrothers and Pigtail Pals & Ballcap Buddies, I'm considering what DFTBA looks like for me and for my two-year-old daughter, Esther.

So far my Lenten discipline has included:
1. Remember you're awesome.
2. So is everybody else.

Spirituality of DFTBA 3: So is Everybody Else, continued

Knowing that everybody else is awesome has lots of implications, some of which I discussed the other day. I mostly talked about people with whom we interact, like family, friends, and even casual acquaintances.

But what about everybody else? I mean, the people who live far far away and with whom you could never interact. I mean, the people nearby with whom you can't interact because they can't afford to go to the same coffee shop/ bookstore/ grocery store/ movie theater/ bar/ concert venue... that you do.

Knowing that EVERYBODY is awesome means thinking about the rest of the world. It especially means thinking about the people who aren't generally thought of as awesome. If we truly believe that God created all of these people supremely good, then even the people the rest of the world shuns, are awesome. Poor people, gay people, people of different races and religions, they are all awesome.

There are lots of ways to learn about everyone's awesome. I personally love a novel or memoir to learn about other cultures and experiences. (Reading Three Cups of Tea and Reading Lolita in Tehran gave me a new perspective on Middle East politics.) Documentaries are another option.  And of course there's the web. You have a question about Islam/ LDS/ Presbyterianism/ Buddhism/ Hindu/ Catholicism? Look it up.

If all people are awesome, then all people should have the same basic rights and opportunities. Jesus said this when he said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." If we would fight for our own rights and opportunities when they've been denied, we should fight for those rights and opportunities for our awesome neighbors.

The Vlogbrothers call this decreasing world suck. In other words, if the world sucks, it's because someone isn't being treated as awesomely as they deserve. There are lots of ways to decrease world suck, and they're all pretty awesome.  Nerdfighters, the online community created by the Vlogbrothers, have created all kinds of opportunities to decrease world suck, even creating a foundation for that very purpose.

Recently Esther and I went into Philly to participate in One Billion Rising, a demonstration protesting violence against women. It was a small step in acknowledging the awesomeness of everyone, in this case, the one billion women in the world who are victims of violence.


DFTBA 3: Concrete tasks

• Read a memoir written by someone from another culture.
• Watch a documentary on poverty.
• Consider a right or opportunity you have or had, that others don't. Give thanks.
• Consider a right or opportunity you have or had about which you feel passionate. Google organizations that help provide that right or opportunity for others.

Prayer
Creator who made us all awesome, clear our minds of misgivings about others and help us to see your face in all people, that we may decrease world suck. Amen.

Trip to Philly

Esther and I went into Philly last week for V-Day.  One Billion Rising was V-Day/The Vagina Monologues' huge worldwide movement. One of my best friends helped plan OBR, so I just HAD to go.

For the sake of adventure, and also to avoid all the drama of parking in the city, Esther and I took the train. She's a fan of Thomas & Friends, so riding the choo-choo was very exciting.

Yeah... she looks excited, doesn't she?






OBR took place at Love Park, home of the famous LOVE statue.  It was the first time I'd seen the statue, and I have to tell you, it was smaller than I expected. Of course, we still took a picture!

It's in a historical and touristy part of town, right next to the Visitors' Center and City Hall. The City Hall has an archway underneath with four sculpted columns. Each column is decorated with a cluster of people holding up the ceiling at the top... they look like four stereotyped races of people. I can't decide if it looks more like historical racism or a symbol of inclusiveness, but I think it's some odd old-fashioned well-meant combination of the two. At the top of the arches between the columns were four animals, a bull, a lion, an elephant, and some other strange cat/wolf-like animal that Esther decided was a pig. She kept pointing at this thing, which truly looked like a werewolf, and saying, "Oink, oink!"

Across the street is the Mason's Temple. I kept thinking of Dan Brown and Nicholas Cage.

As we walked around the block, we came across Macy's. Macy's isn't so exciting, but it used to be Lord & Taylor, and before that, Wannamaker's. Wannamaker's was a huge department store, nine stories of retail in the middle of the city.

It's also where my great-grandmother Esther worked. She was a seamstress and dress-maker in the ladies' department. She took the train from Frazer, her family's farm, into Suburban Station. The art deco station is right around the corner, and the arrival point for many folks from the suburbs who came into Philly to work.

Esther and I went into Macy's to get a glimpse of the place where Grandmom Esther used to work. It was another place I'd never seen in Philly. It's famous, historic, and connected with my family... I'm not sure why I never went before!

Wannamaker's was in the movie Mannequin, a 1980s classic starring Kim Cattrall before she became Samantha Jones. It has this giant eagle sculpture which is also a landmark. There's an expression, "Meet me at the Eagle," which was a catchphrase in advertising in addition to being a useful way to find a friend when both are done shopping.

Mr. Wannamaker wanted his store to be in itself an adventure and a landmark and an experience. The pipe organ that Mr. Wannamaker built is the largest operational organ in existence.  It had a restaurant and fantastic tile and marble architectural features. He had President Taft dedicated the re-build, and there's a marker on the floor where he stood. Macy's has redone a lot of the walls (something about taxes and square-footage), but there are still some pretty cool historical features and fixtures. Macy's only uses three stories of Wannamaker's nine. The rest were sold as office space. It's likely that Grandmom's work space was on a higher story, and has been remodeled.

Some friends I hadn't seen in a long time met us in the city and we enjoyed a delicious dinner. Esther was a bit out of sorts after the long day, but calmed down a bit after one of those friends took her for a quick walk around the block in her stroller.

We caught the train from Suburban Station and headed home, where Esther passed out in the car just moments after pulling away.

One Billion Rising

Today is the day!

Esther and I are taking the train into Philly so we can stand (or sit in a stroller, we'll see) against violence against women.  Check out their website for more information.

A lot of locations are doing flashmobs, but Philly is doing Zumba together. The dancing is an empowering way to channel the emotion around the topic, while displaying to the world that women are not going to take it any more.

If you're not attending an event (some locations do have events throughout the weekend), I encourage you to watch one of the many events worldwide on the website. There are live feeds there, and I assume lots of videos will be posted to YouTube later.

Another way to contribute to the cause: call you congress person and remind him or her to vote for VAWA. The Violence Against Women Act made it through the Senate, but we're waiting on Congress.  Here's some info here.

One Billion Rising II

RISING

Written in Kerala for the women of India who lead the way

This could have been anywhere

And was

Mexico City

Manila

Mumbai

Manhattan

Nighttime men

waiting

like wolves

Drooling

for prey

behind

that single dimly painted door

paying nothing

a couple of  dollars

or euros

rubies

or pesos

to have her

Enter her

Eat her

Devour her

and throw away her bones.

This could have been anywhere

And was

A Buddhist nun on a bus

Trying to stay dry for the night

A woman leader speaking out against

The repressive government

A young woman traveling with her boyfriend

One lost her voice

The other her following

The last one her life

This could have been anywhere and was

Pink wooden crosses

A stack of stones

Red wilting carnations

Empty chairs in a square

Ribbons flying in a sultry wind

I ask Anna Nighat Kamla Monique Tanisha Emily

Why Why

Porque Eran Mujeres

Parce qu'elles étaient des femmes

Because they were women

Because they were women

This could have been anywhere

And was

Where she got fired for being too beautiful

Fined for drinking after she was raped

A serious offer to marry her rapist

Got told it was legitimate but not forcible

This could have been anywhere

They do such a thing

When the girls go for fire wood

Step into the lonely man’s car

Drink a little too much at the college party

Wake up with her uncle’s fingers inside

Run from the screaming machete and guns

Be taken at sunrise

Get a bullet in the brain for learning the alphabet

Be stoned for falling in love

Be burned for seeing the future

I am done

Cataloguing these horrors

Data Porn

2 million women raped and tortured

1 out of 3 women

a woman raped every minute

every second

one out of 2

one out of 5

the same

one

one

one

I am done counting

And recounting

Its time to tell a new story

It needs to be our story

It needs to be outrageous and unexpected

It needs to lose control in the middle

It needs to be sexy and in our hips

And our feet

It needs to be angry and a little scary the way storms can be scary

It needs to not ask permission

Or get permits or set up offices

Or make salaries

It wont be recorded or bought or sold

Or counted

It needs to just happen

It is not a question of inventing

But remembering

Buried under the leaves of trauma and sorrow

Beneath the river of

semen and squalor

vaginas and labias

shredded and extracted

stolen

body mines

mined bodies

It is not about asking now

Or waiting

It is about rising

Raise you arm my sister my brother

Raise your one

Billion

Your one heart

Your one of us

I used to be afraid of love

It hurt too much

What never happened

What got ripped away

The rape

The wound

And love 

I thought

was salt

But I was wrong

I was wrong

Step into the fire

Raise your arm

Raise your one

Billion

One

One

One

Rising.

Rising.

Rising.

Eve Ensler for One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising is an event calling attention to violence against women and demanding an end.

Different statistics say that 1 in three or 1 in four women in the world will be assaulted in her lifetime. That's 1 billion people, and it's not ok. As Esther grows up, she is one of those three or four, so it is important to me to do what I can to put an end to it now. I plan on participating at the event in Philadelphia, and I urge everyone to find an event near them and participate.

I'll post more about this as the day comes.