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In the Body of the World

Eve Ensler

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Jun 11, 2023 Nic rated it it was amazing

Shelves: africa, strong-women, nonfiction, social-justice, memoirs, take-back-the-night, cancer, war, domestic-abuse, christian-spirituality

Then I went to the Congo and it was there that it all shattered. There where in one breath the most grotesque acts of evil were countered with the deepest kindness. I had gone there. 52

Eve Ensler also wrote The Vagina Monologues, which I almost saw this Fall and which I now regret missing. I recently read, Speak with the Earth and it Will Teach you by Daniel Cooperrider and in that book Daniel mentions this work by Eve Ensler. Daniel Cooperrider's book is divided into 4 sections (rivers, mounta Then I went to the Congo and it was there that it all shattered. There where in one breath the most grotesque acts of evil were countered with the deepest kindness. I had gone there. 52

Eve Ensler also wrote The Vagina Monologues, which I almost saw this Fall and which I now regret missing. I recently read, Speak with the Earth and it Will Teach you by Daniel Cooperrider and in that book Daniel mentions this work by Eve Ensler. Daniel Cooperrider's book is divided into 4 sections (rivers, mountains, trees & clouds) and in this book, by Eve Ensler, Eve describes spiritual moments, she's encountered, with trees. Also, some of her writing on wind correlates with the "clouds" section of Cooperrider's book.

My tree. Not that I owned it. I had no desire for that. But it had come to be my friend, my point of connection and meditation, my new reason to live...I was not contributing much more than my appreciation of tree, my love of green, my commitment to trunk and bark, my celebration of branch, my insane delight over the gentle white May blossoms that were beginning to flower everywhere. (194-195)

The tree had worked is magic. What I didn't know was that the tree was actually inside me and saving my life. It turns out that Taxol, one of my chemo chemicals, is found in the bark of the ancient yew tree. Even better, the Taxol is made from the needles of the tree, so the tree does not have to be destroyed. Taxol functions to stabilize the cell structure so solidly that killer cells cannot divide and multiply.

It was a tree that was calming and protecting me, fortifying my cell structure so it was safe from attack. I had finally found my mother. 125

Sometimes late in the day, after the singing of the women has died down, a wind comes, a delicious, clean wind. I believe in wind. It pollinates and moves things around. It can cool us off. It can make electricity. It can scatter seeds. It can become a hurricane or a tornado or typhoon. It can rustle the leaves. It rises up and it can help us rise up too. 213

This memoir combines Eve's endurance of a 7 month trial, combatting & recovering from colon cancer, with her current work helping to create "the City of Joy" in the Congo, as well as her own, personal history recovering from a childhood filled with terrible abuse. She mixes this all up in her memoir and it flows beautifully, swirling all around, demonstrating how she became the woman that she is. All that, she manages to capture all of that, yet it's a short, quick, mesmerizing read.

I would say that if you work in the medical field this would be an intriguing read, as well. Eve Ensler teaches about medicine and healthcare from the aspect of patient, and I learned from this book. Overall, a very goodread!

It turns out that somatization is related to hysteria, which stems from the Greek cognate of uterus...Uterus = hysteria....Hysteria - a word to make women feel insane for knowing what they know. 38-39

When I thought port, I thought water. I thought ocean. I thought summer. I thought harbor. I thought ships and cargo. But mainly I thought of leaving, of departure. Funny, I did not think arriving. From the moment the steel port was inserted into my flesh, I knew I was being taken somewhere. I was a passenger with a port. The port was the fixed spot, where the chemical load could moor itself and enter me. 109

Chemo will purge the badness that was projected onto you but was never yours. I have total faith in your resilience and the magical capacities of your body and soul for healing. Your job is to welcome the chemo as an empathetic warrior, who is coming in to rescue your innocence by killing off the perpetrator who got inside you. You have many bodies, new ones will be born out of this transformational time of love and care. When you feel nauseous or terrible, just imagine how hard the chemo is fighting on your behalf and on behalf of all women's bodies, restoring wholeness, innocence, peace. Welcome the chemo as empathetic warrior. 111

Take me to the core of holy destruction and death and let me survive your excruciating heat.
Let me throw what isn't useful into your flame. Dissolve it there and make me new, make me whole. 117-118

Regina has to stick a huge needle through my chest skin to go into the port. And that first stab is so deep and painful, it punctures my soul. 121

Who will join the women who have lived in the forests, in the projects, in the loud and cramped cities and who carry sacks of pain on their backs and hungry babies on their breasts, who are not counted, but whose strength and whose work hold up the world? Who will stand with them and trust that they have always known the way? The world burns in my veins, just like chemo did only a few months ago. I dare you to stop counting and start acting. To stop pleasing and start defying. I dare you to trust what you know. 215

The fruits of her labor:
Break the Chain
One Billion Rising

A moment for the cover: The golden V: Eve began "V-Day", celebrated on Valentine's day. It's a day to demand the end to violence against women and girls, around the globe. The big golden V also reminds of a valley and "The City of Joy", which Eve helped to establish, lies in a valley. Yes, and V is for vagina.

Netflix also has a documentary on "The City of Joy" which I'm watching tonight.

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