Working Through Words

Some writers, Flannery O’Connor and Joan Didion for instance, have written that they don’t know what they think until they’ve written it down and read it. Leonard Shlain’s “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” posits “when a critical mass of people within a society acquire literacy, especially alphabet literacy, left hemispheric modes of thought are reinforced at the expense of right hemispheric ones, which manifests as a decline in the status of images, women’s rights, and goddess worship…” Shlain’s book is a historical journey through distinct cultures and times, many of which denied literacy to women. Following that, women’s perspectives were denied to others and to history.

I’ve heard the criticism of Women’s Studies and Black Studies programs by those who claim there are no White or Men’s Studies programs. I agree that compartmentalizing history doesn’t serve the unified whole of history; I also know that traditional history does not reflect a complete history. I know up close and personal what it’s like to have one’s history defined by others. Brain injury in grammar school, injury connected to my being a girl, damaged my neural connections, my memory, and my consciousness. For years, I recorded nightmares in multiple notebooks and wondered what those nightmares meant. Neurogenesis over time, and probably, simple post-concussion physical therapy in my late fifties “suddenly” integrated my consciousness; the nightmares subsided; psychic reintegration continues; my mind changed; and I am changing it further by trying to choose wisely what I pay attention to.

It’s not easy to direct one’s own thoughts, especially amid ignorance, misinformation, and social pressure. We are all mentally and emotionally programmed early on by our extended communities, most of whom were themselves programmed; our environments; school; religion; and whatever media we access, and today, we can easily limit information to what doesn’t challenge us our thinking. In Western Culture’s formative years and years ago, if people learned of world events, it was from a limited source and after the fact. Here, Juneteenth, June 19, commemorates the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas heard that the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect on January 1, 1863

On May 14, in the afternoon, I was pondering what to read. The studious dour part of me felt I should continue reading the 98-page leaked first draft of the Supreme Court decision in the case “Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of The Mississippi Department of Health ET AL, Petitioners v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ET AL.” I searched for the leaked draft online after reading elsewhere that on page 34, the draft discussed safe-haven baby drop offs, which one SCOTUS justice had suggested should address issues faced by women forced to gestate a pregnancy to term and who, having delivered their child, were now ready to be relieved of the burdens of parenting.

Footnote 46 on page 34 of the draft refers to a 2008 CDC document that discusses a 2002 dearth of adoptable infants under the age of 1 month.

Elsewhere, the SCOTUS draft mentions times in our history when some women, recent immigrants for instance, had too many babies while others, upper class white Protestant women, for instance, had seemingly too few. Those opposing contraception for recent immigrants, many of whom were Catholic, linked birth control to eugenics and not quality of life. I’d suppose that if immigrant women in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s thought that contraception and birth control might lead to economic stability for their families, and, maybe, for themselves, they probably weren’t saying so in public.

Some religions ruled women with an iron hand, the religion in which I was raised, the religion of several SCOTUS justices, opposed women’s suffrage. The SCOTUS document, as much as I’ve read of it, references history and historical and legal precedents discussed, written, and established during a time women had no guiding participation in medical care, little or no access to formal higher education, and no voting representation in any legislation that codified their rights or lack thereof.

The traditions and precedents discussed in the SCOTUS draft are precedents applied to a population subject to accountability without representation.

Back to my reading choices on May 14: the happy part of me wanted to read the rest of “Coach Wooden and Me.” “Coach Wooden and Me” is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s memoir of lessons UCLA Coach John Wooden taught him, when, Kareem, known then as Lew Alcindor, was a young student/athlete confronted by entrenched routine racism during the turbulent 1960’s. Lew chose a path that led him to embrace his original ancestral roots; he converted to Islam; changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; honed his basketball skill; worked at his writing; and chose a purpose-filled life’s path. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s story is about positive change amid a difficult reality.

I didn’t finish the book or read the SCOTUS draft; I turned on the news where I learned about the race-based shooting in Buffalo. Commentators mentioned a couple of websites used by the boy-next-door-looking 18-year-old shooter. I was and am not interested in what hatemongering words this teenager has read.

I can guess. Peace.

Debra Merryweather