Some Light Heavy Talk
I’m reading this book called Half The Sky. The title is based on an old Chinese proverb that says: “Women hold up half the sky”. It’s an amazing book. I highly recommend that you all read it. It’s about all the oppression that women face around the world, and specifically focuses on the ways that girls are forced into prostitution and raped. Believe it or not, it is not a depressing book. This book doesn’t just focus on how men are the bad guys and women are the victims. It gives us all responsibility for creating the world we live in, and for changing it. And it tells many wonderful stories about how a handful of brave people are changing the world.
I want to change the world, too. And I realized that in order for my dream to come true, of teaching sacred sexuality around the world, there must be a balance between honoring not just the masculine but also the feminine. And so the work of these “social entrepreneurs” and my work are intertwined.
This morning I was reading about a Pakistani woman named Mukhtar. You may have heard of her. She’s famous, actually. She revolted against the gang rape that was perpetrated upon her in her country and rather than commit suicide (which is the way a Pakistani woman is supposed to bring “honor” back to her family after a gang rape), she “turned her oppression into opportunity”, as the subtitle of the book reads. She heads up an aid group in Pakistan which has helped thousands of Pakistani girls and women, and much more.
I bring all this up because in reading this book, I have learned things I never knew about our world. I, like many others, sit in my Western World house every day and easily feel so far removed from what is going on in others countries. I think, though, that as long as I/we continue to operate this way, my dream and the dreams of these social entrepreneurs, like Mukhtar, will never be fully realized.
Maybe we’re not so far away as it seems. I recalled this morning that I once had an opportunity to talk to a young Pakistani man when I was working as a stripper. He was sitting at the bar by himself. He was a handsome guy. I approached him and sat down. I didn’t dance for him, there was no money exchanged, but he did give me a gift. He shared his heart with me. He told me a story, a real-life tragedy, about his life. He is here as a student in America. He has to go back to his country when he’s done with school. His heart is torn because there is a woman there that he is in love with. They are in love with each other. And she is not his betrothed. If he marries the woman he is supposed to marry, he will betray his heart. If he doesn’t, and if he chooses to be with his beloved, here is the risk: If they are found out, his beloved will be killed. And then both his and her families will be cut off from society, so that it would be hard or impossible for them to survive. And he says this would all be legal.
Here is my truth about the two stories that have been told, above: We are one. We are not separate from each other. Our separate bodies, cultures, and countries create the illusion of separation. We all come from one Source. What happens to one of us happens to all of us.
I would love you hear comments on this from people around the globe as well as from Americans. Please share your truth.