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You want to grow old Like The Carters; Curing blindness & Building houses For The Poor; Making friends of those Who believe They must fight. You want to grow old Like The Carters Holding hands With someone You love & Riding bicycles Leisurely Where the ground Is well known & perfectly Flat.
When you see water in a stream you say: oh, this is stream water; When you see water in the river you say: oh, this is water of the river; When you see ocean Water you say: This is the ocean’s water! But actually water is always only itself and does not belong to any of these containers though it creates them. And so it is with you.
The poor always believe there is room enough for all of us; the very rich never seem to have heard of this.
When you were little I delighted in every word you uttered. You were so clever! For instance: the word “utter.” Holding your small hand to my throat to feel why the word “utter” is so different from the word “bark” you wondered aloud: So is it the same with cows? You know, do cows have them. Utters? No, I said udder is different it is something that carries milk. You liked milk especially chocolate. Oh, you said, getting it right away: Utter I speak! Udder I drink! Close enough I said, adoring you. We spent the morning quietly sipping mugs of dark cocoa smiling a lot drawing & then painting
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Listen: Go to the forest. Get lost there. Find a shack to live in. A shack that, like your soul, might need endless days and nights of repair. Let your hair grow out. Your soul reviving, you’ll look great with locks! In any case: Disappear from the devil’s plantation; let him harvest his own poisoned crops.
It is compelling to watch the few still free of it. Who were never caged within the false bright light of “the set” nor ever pinned to the couch by TV.
I am thinking of Democratic, and, perhaps Socialist, Womanism. For who else knows so deeply how to share but Mothers and Grandmothers? Big sisters and Aunts? To love and adore both female and male? Not to mention those in between. To work at keeping the entire community fed, educated and safe?
Earth, Mother Earth, needs mothers, regardless of gender—though we all recognize who most mothers have been, and are. Mothering is an instinct, yes, but it is also a practice. It can be learned. For women it has been an eons-long experience: the art and necessity of taking care of all, of everything, of mothering. So perhaps the new “ism” we are talking about is not classic Womanism, but Motherism. Democratic Motherism.
