Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Let's Try Life


Okay. I think time’s up. Time’s up for the current world leaders to try and do something about this mess. They’ve given all the Big Questions their best shots, don’t you think? The Middle East, global weather changes, the whole energy thing, all the religions and boundaries and beliefs and starvation and disease and nuclear treaties and desires and needs and rights and creeds and crimes and well…

Guys. Let it go. Go on home. We don’t like your answer to most of the big problems, which always seems to involve another damn war.

Nah. It’s not working, that death thing.

I think it’s time to let some real experts try to handle the problems.

I say, let’s give the midwives a chance.

Why do I say that? Well, because midwives know what life is all about. They know what it takes to get it here and how to keep it going once it's here. Can't you just see a gathering of women from all over the globe, each selected for her ability to safely and skillfully and wisely work with the forces of nature to deliver life?

And this wouldn't be happening at Camp David either. No, all it would take would be some basic housing and plenty of kitchen tables for the women to sit around. Midwives know how to figure things out sitting around a kitchen table, late into the night, sipping nothing but raspberry tea.

And there they'd be, all these women of every color and creed and religion and belief and age, dressed in saris and mini skirts and burkas and blue jeans, with their strong midwife hands, their wise midwife hearts, their powerful midwife arms, their smart midwife brains and their midwife souls, dedicated to life.

All of that instead of a bunch of men in suits with bodyguards and computers and war on their minds.

Why not let these women get together and try to sort out the problems we face because midwives know what's really important and what's really important is for life to go on. Not just our lives, but the lives of all the things that make this planet livable. Midwives know that it is the tiniest of creatures who hold all of the future.

Midwives know that life is too short and precious to waste our resources on bombs and guns and tanks. They know the money would be better spent on making sure that everyone has enough to eat and that everyone has clean water to drink and air to breath and medicines to treat what can be treated and access to those medicines and to education for all the children.
Midwives know what it means to breathe life into a child born not breathing and what it takes to ensure that that life gets a chance to keep on breathing and be healthy and productive and deserving of the amazing effort it took to get it here.

Midwives are not afraid of blood or work or shit or tears or love. They know that all of these things are necessary for the creation and delivery of life.

I think that if all these women were gathered together with all their skills and knowledge they might be able to figure out some of the things that we are so obviously not able to figure out with the tools and fools we're using now.

It might take time.

But every good midwife knows that birth always takes time. And patience and constant vigilance and maneuvering and the ability to stay awake and pay attention.
And the constant knowledge that nature must be respected in all ways and at all times in order for life to thrive.

At the very least, it would be interesting to try life for awhile, and peace, too, while we're at it.
I'm tired of this death thing. I'm tired of war.

Let's give the midwives a chance.

8 comments:

  1. I may not be a midwife, but I SURE would love to be at that table. Sounds glorious, absolutely glorious.

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  2. Yeah. Pretty naive idea but it couldn't work any worse than what we've got going now.
    Well, in my opinion.

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  3. This brought tears to my eyes, Ms. Moon. I have NO doubt in my mind that they could do a lot better. Like, try LIFE instead of DEATH???

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  4. I will tell you what I think, Mary. This has to be one of the finest pieces I have ever read. Thank you, thank you for the honorable words you have bestowed on all midwifes. I would LOVE to share this with the whole world! LOVE

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  5. Alice dear- you know I was thinking of you amongst the wise women.
    Love...Mary

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  6. You're my she-ro, Mary Moon.

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  7. You're so right. The most violent countries around have the most violent birth practices. Shelia Kitzinger wrote about it too.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.