Our Heritage is Our Power

Jan 4, 2013 | Sacred Stories, Sovereignty, Women's Voice & Power

I had a gorgeous hour on Skype with Amy Palko today. A quick skim of topics included online business, abortion rights, driver’s licenses, culinary delicacies, life with teenagers, passive revenue streams, archetypes, goddesses, and . . . romance novels.

She talked of her current intrigue in self-published romance novels (a burgeoning quantity within the past few years, she says). Previously controlled almost exclusively by major publishing houses, that choke-hold has loosened, if not completely broken free with the advent of
self-publishing. Now, anyone (including me), can put their words into print! For women this is particularly significant: a forum in which we can say what we want with no need for permission or privilege.

This is not new. Amy told me of a lecture she gave about the gendered nature of blogging; the way in which it mirrors (and amplifies) what we’ve seen for centuries in women’s diaries and journals. Safe space in which women have articulated their coming of age, their deepest desires, their voice – unedited and unrestrained.

We agreed:

As women, we need a place to tell our stories – and hear each other’s. If it’s not provided or encouraged by the systems and structures within which we live, we will make a way.

As we talked, I felt a growing sadness within; truth-be-told, even a tinge of anger. This does not happen in Scripture. Women’s own voices and candid, raw experiences have not been captured or curated. And because of such, we have no sense of how they experienced their own coming of age, their own desires, their own experience of voice (or not). We have no way of connecting to them. Not really. Or at least, not enough.

It’s no wonder we struggle to find ourselves within those pages. We’re not there! Not in the connective, resonant, “yes” sort-of ways we intuitively create and crave.

Lest you despair, know that I do not. (Well, not for long, anyway.)

This is what I do and why I do it!

Women’s stories desperately long to be discovered, told, and honored throughout the pages of Scripture for (at least) two reasons: 1) because they are there, often between the lines, and waiting to be told, but boldly, beautifully present nonetheless; and 2) without them, our stories are incomplete – so formative and embedded are these texts in our culture, our politics, our structures of power, our religion(s), our social systems, our everyday world.

Judy Chicago, feminist artist of The Dinner Party said: “…all the institutions of our culture tell us through words, deeds, and even worse, silence, that we are insignificant. But our heritage is our power.”

I could not agree more. And I could not hope more. Our heritage is our power. Our stories, past and present, can and must be told.

Women’s voices, past and present, can and must be heard. It is not too late.

Mmmhmm. And then some.

May it be so.

On Money & Power

Aug 20, 2007 | Sacred Stories, Women's Wisdom

I’ve been thinking much these past days about money – how short it is, how fast it goes, how I’m always wishing for more.

I’ve also been bumping up against issues of power – its assumptions, its privilege, its exclusion.

Then today I came across this quote by George MacDonald:

To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power.

How’s that for messing with the categories? It certainly messes with me. I often confuse the two – and I doubt I’m alone. More often it seems that those with riches are those with power. The converse is also often true – or at least it seems so: the less money, the less power.

I’m wondering today what it would be like to redefine both of these words; certainly for myself, but in other contexts and on behalf of others, as well.

  • What if wealth was not something to be attained, but something willingly done without?
  • What if wealth was something I chose to not worry about so much? OK: obsess about.
  • What if my letting go of this category of meaning or significance for my life was actually what ushered me into more wealth, albeit of a different kind, and power – also of a different kind?
  • What if power was not something grabbed; something that just goes with the territory of wealth, influence, gender, privilege?
  • What if power was something I intentionally chose (and experienced) by seeing wealth in a different way?
  • What if power was more available the less I desired such (perhaps even money, as well)?

There’s a story in the New Testament Scriptures that tells of the Widow’s Mite.

While seeing contributions/offerings made by rich men, Jesus highlights how a poor widow donates only two mites, the least valuable coins available at the time. She gave everything (if not more) than she had while others, those with power and money, gave only a small portion of their wealth.

Who was esteemed? Who had the most “power?” Who had the most riches? She did. A woman. A widow. Poor. Shunned. Ignored. Silenced. Unseen. Powerful!

What if, indeed?!?

I went to a Power Lunch today

Aug 2, 2007 | Women's Voice & Power

I went to a Power Lunch today.

I know what you’re thinking: “Really, Ronna?! Are you now going to buffet luncheons and handing out your card, trying to drum up business?” No. Not that I shouldn’t be. There can be much value in that activity when done strategically and in the right groupings.

This was something far different. I sat in the Board Room on the 76th floor of the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle. As you might imagine, the view was spectacular. If the unencumbered vista of the Puget Sound and the Cascade mountains weren’t enough, the Blue Angels were rehearsing around us for an upcoming performance. What a venue! And no buffet! We were served (as it should be, frankly…).

But that’s only the start of things!

I sat at the end of a long table surrounded by 12 amazing, powerful women. (Get it?! “Power” lunch?) We spent over 90 minutes together laughing, asking hard questions, reflecting, dreaming, inviting ourselves and one another into the most delicious, tantalizing taste of fuller, more abundant life.

I found myself caught up by the beauty of the view and the beauty of the stories by which I was surrounded. I found myself so curious about the lives, hearts, and dreams of these women. I found myself wishing for more and more contexts in which these kind of conversations with these kind of women could ensue!

Before I knew it, our time ended, I descended 76 floors to the street level, and went back to work, but not without taking something with me: a deepened sense of how beautiful women truly are, how much they can and do bear, how powerful they truly are, and how deeply they dream on their own behalf and on behalf of others.

My Power Lunch was hosted by an amazing entrepreneurial organization called Working with Power. Not surprisingly, it was founded by two incedible women who truly believe that we can live, work, and love in ways that enable, enhance, and empower our innate giftings as women; not having to function counter-intuitively, but naturally, spontaneously, freely, powerfully – and easily!!!

It doesn’t take long when in their presence to know that they’ve tapped into something. They themselves are powerful, beautiful, stunning women. But what I found most powerful, beautiful, and stunning was that they deeply wanted that for each of us! What a gift. What a blessing. What a lunch!

I’d encourage you to find a way to have a Power Lunch of your own – even if it’s by yourself. Find some way to recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate that you are powerful, beautiful, and stunning.

What might happen if you and all women actually believed this about themselves? What, indeed?

What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” (Muriel Rukeyser)

I’m deeply sated – and already hungry for the next course!!!

Women Together: the best kind of danger

Sep 27, 2006 | Hope & Encouragement, My sort-of Sermons, Women's Voice & Power, Women's Wisdom

I just returned from three glorious days on the waterfront in Gig Harbor, WA. If that wasn’t good enough, I was in the company of 15 amazing women – half of whom flew in from all over the U.S. and the other half of whom are located here in the Pacific Northwest.

Sally Morgenthaler was with us as the “host” of what she calls Conversations. Together we reveled in each other’s company and the beauty of not only the location, but the faces, hearts, stories, and lives of those by whom we were surrounded.

I’m exhausted tonight, but I am also overwhelmed by the beautifully dangerous power present when women are together.

That danger is not to be feared, but embraced, welcomed, and aggressively ushered into many places that are deeply in need of the power women have to offer. It is not a command-and-control kind of power, but power that is deeply connective, deeply intuitive, deeply generative, deeply creative, and deeply committed.

16 powerful, dangerous, beautiful women in one place for 3 days are now disbursed into their larger communities. They came strong, broken, tender, wounded, growing, struggling, rejoicing. They left more powerful, more dangerous, and more beautiful – with even more to offer, more tears to shed, more voices to raise, more eyes to open, more lives to change, more worlds to alter, heal, and lead.

I am not the same woman I was on Monday morning. Their voices have shaped and changed me. I am now more powerful, more dangerous, more beautiful, and more heartbroken, more committed, more compelled, more prepared, more tender, more strong. And I am not alone.

I am surrounded – in heart – by 15 amazing companions; women who have and will continue to labor on behalf of one
another and all that we are yet to birth. I’m grateful to every one of them. I’m hopeful for many more such conversations. And I love that danger abounds in their beauty and strength – and in my own!

Power & Privilege (and me)

Sep 6, 2006 | My sort-of Sermons, Sacred Stories, Women's Voice & Power

These words: power and privilege, have been part of numerous conversations lately. Some of those conversations have considered both from the perspective of not having either. Others have considered what it means to acknowledge both the words and their reality in our own lives and be aware of the “other” more intentionally. In all of them, the words seem to be tricky, hard to pin down, misunderstood,
confusing, and hard to stay focused on or do anything about.

Toward that end, I’ve been thinking about the story of Hagar – and Sarah – as example of power and privilege gone bad…on a number of levels.

Sarah is clearly the person in this relationship with power and privilege. Not as much as her husband, obviously, but still more than her maidservant, Hagar. When tension rises, Sarah uses her power/privilege card to get her way and Hagar is sent into the desert – twice! The
first time alone and pregnant and the second time with her young son.

This story disturbs me, in part because the conflict is between two women. Power and privilege belong to one and are used against the other, seemingly without any consideration of how that might be harmful, unfair, etc. I would hope for better. And, it still happens. So sad.

It also disturbs me because Sarah’s behavior has no element of self-reflection. It seems second-nature for Sarah to get her way – a mark of privilege’s familiarity for those who have such AND a lack of how such can be so profoundly damaging to those without.

I’m also disturbed by this story because historically as it’s been exegeted, we’ve focused on Hagar’s “insolence” and then implicitly assumed that she deserved to be cast away. After all, Sarah was the chosen one – the wife of Abraham, the bearer of God’s covenant. We’ve excused her behavior more often than not and have nearly ignored the plight of this powerless woman who is banished into distant lands, never to be heard from again. This common textual emphasis in itself, speaks loudly to our own comfort with power and privilege as predominantly white, middle-class Americans.

There’s enough to struggle with just in these realities but I think there’s more:

When we look more closely at Hagar’s story we come to see that she has a powerful and privileged encounter with God…unlike Sarah. She, the marginalized, powerless, unprivileged one is seen by God and sees God. She, the outcast, is the first theophany in all of Scripture. She, the one we’ve too often ignored, is the one who knows God in far more profound ways than Sarah, certainly, and frankly most of us.

What are we to learn from this? For me, it makes me wonder what I “miss” of God as long as I hold on to my own power and privilege. Power and privilege are woven into everything; they are not all or nothing “qualities.” I have them both – and both are used in ways that harm me and those around me.

These are hard conversations and they seem to me to be at the core of much, if not all, of the struggles of which I’m so acutely aware: issues of gender, race, inclusion, diversity, social justice, politics, theology…Is there anything untouched by these two words?

May I be a woman who is aware of her power and her privilege – its benefits and its potential to harm. May I be a woman who is not afraid of naming the misuse of power and privilege as it harms me – and those around me.

A quickly typed post. Lots more thoughts spinning in my head and heart. Undoubtedly, more to follow.