Teaching the truth

I have two little girls, beautiful babies, who I will have to teach to protect themselves, follow their intuition, use a sixth sense, live like wild animals in captivity because still today, all over the world, a woman is not safe.  The thought makes my blood boil and breaks my heart at the same time.  The prolonged beating and sexual assault of US journalist Lara Logan and the subsequent conversation following that attack on what she coulda', woulda', shoulda' done has not only stunned me and torn my heart to shreds, but has made me want to throw up.

 Yes, I know that this, a very public attack on a public figure, is bringing outrage and frustration that is not seen or expressed when assaults, rapes, beatings, killings happen every day, every minute, every second to ordinary, voiceless women, but it does not diminish the attempted seizure of this woman's power and sense of safety and security.  Because Lara Logan was brave enough to call it out, to admit it, to say it, maybe someone else will not feel as alone as she tries to put her life back together. 

And it is putting your life back together because an assault on a woman goes right to the core, to the center of who she is.  It is first and second chakra energy destruction--her roots, where she comes from, takes it back to her ancestors, her sense of creativity and wonder, her mother love, wit, her base.  It doesn't matter the act.  I have heard so much speculation as to "what exactly happened to her."  Are we really rubbernecking at a woman's vicious assault?  Do we have to know her pain, have it defined, know the specifics, have to experience it ourselves to be not only offended but wounded?  Wounded, cut open, bled, pained.  Revisiting these feelings has left me wrecked and hoping that I can arm my girls with the courage, intuition, and instinct to avoid danger, knowing that all the prep in the world cannot prevent it.  It seems to be the luck of the draw.

What I can hope is that I am able to instill in them a sense of self-worth, self-love, self-respect so they do not willingly walk into abusive situations.  I want them to know their surroundings, march to their own beat, lead their own way.  But don't go it alone.  Challenge the norms, change the world but have a friend close or at least a contact number.  And that is what breaks my heart.  I dare to teach them to be independent, to think for themselves, to trust their instincts and someone will still question why they were "in a country like Egypt all alone, reporting, being beautiful."  I want them to reach for their highest potential and yet want them to hide themselves in the face of male aggression and anger.

I don't have an answer.  I don't offer solutions.  I know as well as anyone else that humankind cannot thrive without the strength, the backbone of its women.  But I am preaching to the choir.  I am speaking to my own crowd.  I have two beautiful little girls.  Intelligent.  Charismatic.  Kind. And I will teach them.  I will show them.  I will tell them.  Lara Logan, the countless, faceless others, and their mother endure by the strength of their character, with the love and support of their friends, with the tenacity and spirit beating in their hearts.  And that this, while disgusting and maddening, is an unfortunate truth in the lives of many women no matter their culture, their religion, their background, or their status.



(c)  Copyright 2011.  City Mom in the Jungle.