Connectedness

Eve Ensler spoke at Ted last year. I will admit I don't know that much about Ensler but found her talk fascinating. Best known for her book Vagina Monologues, Ensler speaks about connectedness. Connectedness to each other, our planet and to the devastation around us.

At one point she says, "Then I went somewhere else. I went outside what I thought I knew. I went to the Democratic Republic of Congo. And I heard stories that shattered all the other stories. I heard stories that got inside my body…” Stories of horrific rape, of girls forever scarred and wounded from what happened to them.

“There are thousands of these stories, and many of the women had holes in their bodies -- holes, fistula -- that were the violation of war -- holes in the fabric of their souls. These stories saturated my cells and nerves, and to be honest, I stopped sleeping for three years. All the stories began to bleed together. The raping of the Earth, the pillaging of minerals, the destruction of vaginas -- none of these were separate anymore from each other or me. Militias were raping six-month-old babies so that countries far away could get access to gold and coltan for their iPhones and computers. My body had not only become a driven machine, but it was responsible now for destroying other women's bodies in its mad quest to make more machines to support the speed and efficiency of my machine.”

Connectedness. The stories of sisters suffering around the world, in part because of the goods we buy, left Ensler scarred. It leaves me grappling and wounded too. I wish I didn't know what I do, but we cannot escape the reality around us. So, Ensler started V-Day, an organization that demands the end of violence against women and children.

If we are connected to the earth. If we are connected to the tragedies around the world. If we are connected to and take responsibility for our greed that breeds destruction in other places. If we realize our common movement within humanity - then what is our response? What do we do for the women in The Congo, crying out from the violation of their land and of their bodies? 

No easy answers come, but then again nothing worth doing is easy. 

There are no easy answers.
Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. 

Connected - joined or fastened together. Our actions, our decisions, our words, our action (or inaction) affect each other. 

Awareness - We are connected to each other. 

Education - How we spend our revenue affects women worlds away,

it can bring destruction or it can bring restoration. 

Advocacy - Use your influence to tell others. 

How can you bring connectedness to your world; to those around you in your family, community, society and to the larger universe in general?

 

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