Yesterday was International Women's Day and I just read Marianne Williamson's right on the mark article on the celebration of the women all around the world.
I presently live in a city that has joined the many others in global economic growth. According to some taxi drivers I have randomly and casually interviewed, there are about 2,000 - 3,000 taxi cabs in our city that is about 170 sq. mi., home to about 600,000 residents. This city is also home to many multinational companies that have in their employ the best minds of men and women in the country.
That said, I come into contact with many people who have been experiencing high levels of stress due to the demands of living a fast-paced life. Not to say that our city is close to being New York or Hong Kong, but it is far from being the idyllic hinterlands that it used to be.
My high school teacher and I caught up with each other and I asked her how things were back in the day when the roads of our city wasn't clogged with the horrendous traffic that we contend with now. She said that basically, life as a teacher was smooth sailing and she had only a few experiences of displaced anger coming from parents of her students. And this was coming from a school of wealthy families.
Compare to what author Francis Kong had said during a Parenting Seminar I had attended when he said that the wealthier the school, the deeper the problems. And might I add, the higher the level of stress (for both the teachers, who are the second mothers of the children, and the parents themselves).
Connect to what Marianne Williamson said in her article that : "Corporate profits should not be our economic bottom line; the safety and welfare of this planet, our collective habitat, should be our bottom line. On this, we should insist. For we are the homemakers of the world...."
The pursuit of financial and economic ease has always been a non-gender issue, but with the women's lib movement in the recent decades, women's pursuit of bringing home their own bacon has been a glaring necessity in the silent majority. This is not bad in itself. The danger lies in the tendency to neglect the homefront for reasons of staying late at the office to bring home the extra yummy, extra strips of bacon at the expense of caring for the family and spending time with people we love, the same people who rely on us.
The basics needs are essential, but equally essential, if not more, are the time we spend looking out for what Marianne Williamson calls the safety and welfare (of our planet). We begin everyday, moment by moment, and start at the home, outwards to the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment