Happy With a Side of Sadness

I am happy for you. And you. And you. All of you.
And, sometimes I am sad for me.
All at the same time.

Requiring Transvaginal Ultrasound Exams

The war against women has reached new lows. Men are deciding our medical and reproductive fates in all-male enclaves prohibiting our voices while inviting religious extremists to the table. I identify these men as religious extremists because they are insisting on imposing their religious views denying women access to health care on those of us who do not share their beliefs.

Some have mandated that women be vaginally penetrated before they can obtain a still-legal abortion. This requirement, for unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound examinations is medical rape, forcing medical technicians to punish women for choosing abortions with the humiliating, invasive and sometimes excruciatingly painful procedure.
The men who design and market this equipment seem to count on the ability of women's vaginas to expand to accept objects of any shape. Some are wider at the point of insertion than at the base, with squared tops. There is no reason the transducer could not be designed to be tampon-shaped. They seem to be designed to inflict pain, at a time when women are anxious and have great difficulty relaxing their abdominal muscles. It takes more than a little lube to put a square peg in a round hole.
The relationship between design and production of medical equipment and legislation mandating its deployment in the bodies of unwilling women crosses the fictional line of Margaret Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale."
It is beyond absurd that the same Islamophobic politicians who see Talibani sharia law under ever rock and leaf are racing to impose a heretical christo-talibani sharia law on the citizens of the United States of America.
Voting democratic is not nearly enough to combat this threat. We need to claim the inherent dignity and value of women as human persons in every space at every time. I am a black woman and I am created in the image of God. You cannot see me without seeing Her. And if you do not see Her when you see me then you are a blasphemer and a heretic.

Whelmed

I'm not overwhelmed. I'm just whelmed. I have so much on my plate that I can not manage another thing. I can do what I have to do, but not anything else. My plate is full, right to the rim. Like a camel bearing a full load. A single straw, leaf or feather will be too much. No mas!

Crashing into Reality

I have been a part of this community for more than seven years and it and I are still alien to each in some respects. I really hate chapel here. There is no life in the worship most of the time - and if there is life, it is so alien that I cannot recognize it as such. Regular, if not frequent, attendance at these tortuous services is the price I pay, (one of them), for getting to do what I love in this same place.

Sabbatical Fruit

I had no idea how much my sabbatical gave to me until I started talking with listening to my spiritual director:

FIrst Day of School

Tomorrow is my first day of school in a really long time. I'm exited about it as I have been about every semester as a student and a teacher. I also have a small degree of performance anxiety. How did being on sabbatical affect my teaching? How should sabbatical have affected my teaching? The pressure of peer evaluation is largely past. But I confess, I want my students to love me. And my teaching.