When You Listen To Other

I Was A Young Feminist In The '70s. Feminism Saved My Life. It Gave Me A Life. But I Saw How So Much Of What People Were Saying Was Not Matching Up With What They Were Doing. For Example, We Were Talking About Sister Solidarity, And Women Were Putting Each Other Down. We Were Talking About Standing Up For Our Rights, And Women Weren't Leaving Abusive Relationships With Men. There Were Just So Many Disconnects.

An Activist Is Someone Who Cannot Help But Fight For Something. That Person Is Not Usually Motivated By A Need For Power Or Money Or Fame, But In Fact Is Driven Slightly Mad By Some Injustice, Some Cruelty, Some Unfairness, So Much So That He Or She Is Compelled By Some Internal Moral Engine To Act To Make It Better.

Each Time I Had Five Hours Of The Poison Going Into Me, I Just Pictured Everything That Needed To Be Burned Away. I Pictured Wars, I Pictured The Things My Father Had Done To Me, I Pictured Brutality, And When It Was Over, I Am Light.

Wouldn't It Be Incredible If Everyone Could Be Purged, Somehow, Of The Projected Not-them Badness That They Internalized And Perhaps Have Acted Out Because Their Souls Have Been So Damaged? Wouldn't It Be Incredible If Everyone Could Find The Joy That Comes With Committing To Our Own Goodness? Perhaps We Would Stop Dividing Ourselves Into Malignancies Of Various Forms.

Dance Has A Transformative Effect On Bodily Trauma.