I have another quote to share this week. It’s been all over the place – the earliest reference I can find to it is in the 1932 movie “The Mummy” – and it was used again in the updated remake with Tom Cruise last year. In the latter movie, it was attributed as being an Egyptian Prayer of Resurrection, but I can’t find independent confirmation of that.
“Death is but the doorway to new life. We live today, we shall live again. In many forms we shall return.”
I feel a need to elaborate on one point of my earlier blog. In the text of the blog, I wrote the following:
“Throughout history there have always been those who had to break rules to become what they dreamed of being…”
I do not want to sound like a hypocrite, but I do believe that there is a prerequisite to successfully breaking a rule when it’s necessary. That prerequisite is this: first living BY THE RULES.
In other words, that earlier blog should not be seen in any way, shape, or form, as an endorsement of non-citizens who enter the United States illegally and then try to force change from within. Oprah Winfrey didn’t wake up one day and start demanding that she be given a cable TV network to do with as she pleased. No, she went to college, got a job at a small local TV station, and slowly climbed the corporate ladder to earn her current place among the world’s wealthiest people.
Those of us already living by the rules in the US have no reason to trust outsiders who enter our country for no obvious reason but to change it. We have the right, obligation even, to set rules we want to live by. If you aren’t from here, you have no right to say we can’t live by the rules we choose for ourselves. That is doubly true if you break our rules just to get here and start complaining about them.
Several months ago, my wife asked me a question that has been churning in the back of my mind ever since. Once in a while I’d even deliberately take it out and play with it.
But, I don’t intend to imply that it was a silly question. That headline was just a “teaser” to pull you in and get you to read this. The question itself was legit, and well worth asking.
You see, MOST people only have awareness of whatever experience they have accumulated in the one life they are currently living. I have openly stated that I have partial recall of several lifetimes, which encompass both genders. So, one day when my wife was finding her feminine role a bit more difficult than usual to embrace, she asked me if I thought either gender was inherently superior to the other, based on my own experiences.
I’ve been a female factory worker, a male in a lot of different occupations, a native American hunter, a soldier, and a housewife several times. Somewhere back in the shrouded mists of history I was even a minor noble in a kingdom that no longer exists. Much like the characters I create in role-playing video games, I seem to like trying on a lot of varied “skins”.
So, I’ll take a stab at trying to address the gender wars from the point of a neutral gamer. Because, yes, I do consider that “this lifetime” is just a game, for all of us. That does not mean it isn’t important – but keep in mind that the reason you are playing your role is not inherently even close to the same as why anyone else is playing theirs.
Now, the gender wars. I see women bickering and complaining that this is a male-dominated society, and I also see women rising to the top of major corporations and national governments. I see women treated as sex toys, and men reduced to wage slaves. In fact, the only INHERENT difference between a man and a woman is reproductive function. No matter what you do to him, a man can’t possibly get pregnant by any natural action. Reversely, a woman can not possibly get another person pregnant.
Beyond that, there really aren’t any limits other than those you chose to believe. There never have been. Some of the most effective spies of WW1 and WW2 were women. Men and women both work in safety, health care, domestic service, food service, and more. Throughout history there have always been those who had to break rules to become what they dreamed of being – just take a hard look at what Booker T. Washington had to go through to become the man history remembers.
Also, men and women are both vulnerable to peer pressure, and family pressure. The number of personal dreams that have surrendered to “being reasonable” is beyond count, and each one was a tragedy. The world does not need more factory workers – unless that is actually what you want to do. The world will always need dreamers who reach for the stars – and that is not something men do better than women – or the other way around.
Vernon Pope 