Guest Post: A Parable of Power and Priesthood- Just give me the keys to my own dang car!
Guest post by StephenieG
There was once a kingdom that idolized fast cars. Power and rank were determined by the horse power and speed of your car. Only the King could approve how much access and power each car owner was allowed. The good King of this kingdom had two children, fraternal twins, a prince and a princess. The King loved them dearly. We can assume the queen loved them too, but she was so beautiful and so special that no one was allowed to see her or talk about her. So, we won’t talk about her in this story either. The twins loved each other very much and for most of their early life, their father treated them equally.
But, when the prince neared age twelve, he was given a small scepter and crown representative of his preparation to be king one day. The princess was angry when she received no crown or scepter. The king explained that the princess didn’t need a crown, her crown was implied because she had inherent power at birth simply by being a princess. She would just “become” a queen as part of her divine nature. Her brother didn’t have this natural gift, so he must learn to develop it by managing power and authority over her and over other simple tasks in the kingdom. For a while the princess seemed to accept this, it was after all, how things had always been.
When the twins neared adulthood, they each were endowed with a car, as was the honor and custom in the kingdom. They were beautiful, fast cars. The King said he only wanted the best for both his children. The princess was excited to drive her car. She had never seen a woman drive a car. Usually, husbands and sons drove the cars. However, the princess (in her youth and naivety) assumed that other women chose not to drive their cars. She assumed other women were afraid of the powerful machines or that they just enjoyed being passengers. After all the women did indeed have access to and own their own cars. They must not like driving, she thought. Inside she knew that she wouldn’t need the men to drive a car that rightfully belonged to her. And the princess wasn’t afraid to drive, she knew she was fully capable and looked forward to sitting behind the wheel of her beautiful new car.
On the day the cars were presented, the King handed the prince the keys to his car. The prince proceeded to take his new car out for a drive. The princess held out her hand for the keys to her car. The King withdrew and said: “You can’t have the keys, my daughter, I only promised you a car equal to your brother’s.”
“What good is the car if I don’t have the keys? How is that equal?” demanded the princess.
“You don’t have the keys, but you have full access to the car whenever you like. Just let me know when you would like to use it, for I will be in possession of the keys,” said the King.
“Will you let me drive when you use your key to grant me access?”
“Sweetie, you won’t need to drive it. You’ve got men to drive you around the kingdom. However, there will come a time when you travel to the temple palace and at that time, I will let you have the keys briefly. But they can only be used within the temple palace gates2. You will be able to drive around the track for a bit with other women only. And you’ll stay safe, because I’ve put a governor to control the speed which your car can go. We don’t want you to be bothered with too much power.”
“What good is a car that can go 120 mph if I can only use it to go 25 mph within the temple palace only?”
“You don’t need to go 120 my dear, you just need to know that the power is there, the same power your brother has.”
“It isn’t fair that he gets to use his power and I don’t.”
“Dear, you have access to the same power as he does.”
“Power or platitudes?” she angrily challenged.
The princess argued with her father everyday over this matter as she longingly looked at her car idly parked in the driveway. One day she stopped arguing. She started to believe that having access was the same as having keys. So, she drove her beloved car once a month at the temple palace and grudgingly relinquished her keys on the way out. She loved seeing other women drive cars in the temple palace. Although their speed was governed, they were able to drive as smoothly as the men did on the outside. Most women seemed satisfied with this asymmetrical arrangement3.
But the princess knew she deserved more. And she lived miserably, but since princesses aren’t allowed to be miserable, she smiled and expressed gratitude for the little tokens of power the King allowed her. Her twin brother drove freely throughout the land. In time, he even had keys added to his keychain. He enjoyed the power and speed of driving his car and being admired throughout the kingdom.
One day, the princess asked the prince if he’d plead with their father on her behalf. To ask if he’d allow girls and women the right to carry the keys to their own cars. The prince pondered this in his heart and considered her request. But he was too afraid. He thought: What if her car and power exceed mine? What if no one looks at me when I rev my engine and drive down the road, but instead look at her? No, I won’t ask or plead on her behalf, I’ll just tell my sister that I don’t know why our King and Father won’t allow her the keys to her car. I’ll convince her the King is a mysterious and wise man, so it must be for her own benefit. And besides, she DOES have access.
So, day after day, the princess sat looking at the shiny red muscle car parked in her driveway, the one she had full “access” to. The car she was only allowed to drive briefly when she visited the temple palace. Some days she felt just like that car parked in the driveway, never to know it’s full potential, never to feel the freedom and speed of the open road.
That is until she learned to hotwire. After much pondering, the princess realized that all the necessary components to start her car were contained within the car itself and the key could be bypassed. She knew that potential energy had no tangible power when it only patiently sat in dormancy. It took careful study and time to disassemble the systems put in place by men to require a key. It also took time to reverse the mechanisms that were put in place to limit and govern the car’s speed. But the princess was persistent. She worked daily unscrewing, disconnecting, reconnecting, realigning. One day, she felt satisfied that she had succeeded in bypassing the system meant to deny her power. She attached the last two wires and heard a faint grumble and then the whirr of the engine starting in its full glory. She got behind the wheel. It felt weird to her at first, and she had to spend a lot of time adjusting the seat and the mirrors to her liking. Afterall, she was seeing the world from a new perspective behind the steering wheel of a car, endowed to her by her father, whose full power was now in her hands.
It felt good. She knew she would no longer be satisfied letting men, including her own father, cripple her, just to watch her finish the race last.
So, she gently pressed the gas pedal and lurched forward in search of a kingdom where power didn’t require a key, where equal access wasn’t just lip service, and where kings and queens ruled together in love and harmony. The End (or maybe, the beginning…)
StephenieG is just your typical perimenopausal woman who wants to make the world and religion a more loving space by challenging patriarchy. She thinks deep and always has more questions than answers. She writes about them on Substack (substack.com/@stephenieg) in her spare time.
