(no subject)
This passage is from "Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming" by Paul Hawken (p. 137-138). I read it, and just loved it so much, that I had to record it to keep elsewhere. :>)
Inuit mythology tells the story of Skeleton Woman. The tale begins with a fisherman trolling an inlet for his dinner. Suddenly he feels a heavy pull on his line, something so strong that it drags his kayak out to sea. He believes he has caught a fish so great he can eat for weeks, one so fat that he will prosper ever after, a fish so amazing that the whole vilage will marvel at his prowess. As the fisherman deliriously imagines fame and material ease, he reels in his line. Instead of a fish, he pulls up the decomposed, flesh-eaten carcass of a young woman who had been flung into the sea by her angry father years before. The frightened fisherman tries to free himself of Skeleton Woman, but she is so snarled in his fishing line that she is dragged behind his kayak wherever it goes. He paddles hurriedly back to shore, horrified by the trailing bones and flesh. In his haste to escape, he drags his lines over the beach and brings Skeleton Woman into his cabin, where he collapses in terror. In the retelling of this story by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Skeleton Woman, who is still alive but cadaverous and half-eaten, represents both life and death, a specter reminding us that every beginning brings with it an end, that for all that is taken, something must be given in return. The fisherman eventually calms down and, cowering in the corner, dares to look at his "catch," asleep in the corner of the hut. He begins to feel pity for her, so he quietly creeps over and carefully disentangles the fishing line and seaweed from her hair so as not to wake her. He straightens and rearranges her bony carcass, puts a blanket over her, and finally, no longer afraid, falls asleep. In his sleep, tears of sadness fall from his eyes. Skeleton Woman awakens and crawls across the floor, drinks the tears of the dreaming fisherman, grows a new body, and is transformed into a young woman again.
Like all fishermen, WTO's proponents want to catch the big one. They see few downsides to unleashing the benefits for untrammeled corporate growth. And yet death is always attracted to life; all growth comes with an accounting, a reckoning. Birth and death are each other's consorts, inseparable and fast. The expansive dreams of the world's future wealth were reflected perfectly by Bill Gates III, cochair of he Seattle host committee, the world's richest man, hosting delegates at his $97 million, 66,000-square-foot house. Skeleton Woman showed up in Seattle as the uninvited guest. [The Seattle demonstrations on Nov. 30, 1999] Dancing, drumming, ululating, marching in black alongside symbolic coffins, she wove through the sulfurous rainy streets of the night. She couldn't be killed or destroyed, no matter how much gas or pepper spray, or how many rubber bullets were used. She kept coming back and sitting in front of the police and raised her hands in peace, and was kicked, and trod upon. Skeleton Woman told the corporate delegates and the rich nations that they could not have the world that it was not for sale, that if business was going to trade with the world, it had to recognize and honor the world, her life, and her people. She told WTO that it had to bebrave enought to llisten, strong enoght to yield, courageous enought to give. Skeleton Woman was brought up from the depths and regained her eyes, voice, and spirit. She is about int he world, released that day and night, Movember 30 in Seattle, and her dreams are different. She believes that the right to self-sufficiency i a human right; she imagines a world where the means to kill poeple are described as not a business but a crime, where all crimes against women are crimes against the earth, and all crimes against nature are crimes against humanity, here families do not starve, father can work, children are never sold, and women cannot be impoverished because they choose to be mothers. Skeleton Woman does not see a time when a man holds a patent to any living thing, or where animals are factories, or were rivrs belong to stockholders. Hers are deep and fearless dreams from slow time. She will not be quiet or be thrown back to sea anytime soon.
Inuit mythology tells the story of Skeleton Woman. The tale begins with a fisherman trolling an inlet for his dinner. Suddenly he feels a heavy pull on his line, something so strong that it drags his kayak out to sea. He believes he has caught a fish so great he can eat for weeks, one so fat that he will prosper ever after, a fish so amazing that the whole vilage will marvel at his prowess. As the fisherman deliriously imagines fame and material ease, he reels in his line. Instead of a fish, he pulls up the decomposed, flesh-eaten carcass of a young woman who had been flung into the sea by her angry father years before. The frightened fisherman tries to free himself of Skeleton Woman, but she is so snarled in his fishing line that she is dragged behind his kayak wherever it goes. He paddles hurriedly back to shore, horrified by the trailing bones and flesh. In his haste to escape, he drags his lines over the beach and brings Skeleton Woman into his cabin, where he collapses in terror. In the retelling of this story by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Skeleton Woman, who is still alive but cadaverous and half-eaten, represents both life and death, a specter reminding us that every beginning brings with it an end, that for all that is taken, something must be given in return. The fisherman eventually calms down and, cowering in the corner, dares to look at his "catch," asleep in the corner of the hut. He begins to feel pity for her, so he quietly creeps over and carefully disentangles the fishing line and seaweed from her hair so as not to wake her. He straightens and rearranges her bony carcass, puts a blanket over her, and finally, no longer afraid, falls asleep. In his sleep, tears of sadness fall from his eyes. Skeleton Woman awakens and crawls across the floor, drinks the tears of the dreaming fisherman, grows a new body, and is transformed into a young woman again.
Like all fishermen, WTO's proponents want to catch the big one. They see few downsides to unleashing the benefits for untrammeled corporate growth. And yet death is always attracted to life; all growth comes with an accounting, a reckoning. Birth and death are each other's consorts, inseparable and fast. The expansive dreams of the world's future wealth were reflected perfectly by Bill Gates III, cochair of he Seattle host committee, the world's richest man, hosting delegates at his $97 million, 66,000-square-foot house. Skeleton Woman showed up in Seattle as the uninvited guest. [The Seattle demonstrations on Nov. 30, 1999] Dancing, drumming, ululating, marching in black alongside symbolic coffins, she wove through the sulfurous rainy streets of the night. She couldn't be killed or destroyed, no matter how much gas or pepper spray, or how many rubber bullets were used. She kept coming back and sitting in front of the police and raised her hands in peace, and was kicked, and trod upon. Skeleton Woman told the corporate delegates and the rich nations that they could not have the world that it was not for sale, that if business was going to trade with the world, it had to recognize and honor the world, her life, and her people. She told WTO that it had to bebrave enought to llisten, strong enoght to yield, courageous enought to give. Skeleton Woman was brought up from the depths and regained her eyes, voice, and spirit. She is about int he world, released that day and night, Movember 30 in Seattle, and her dreams are different. She believes that the right to self-sufficiency i a human right; she imagines a world where the means to kill poeple are described as not a business but a crime, where all crimes against women are crimes against the earth, and all crimes against nature are crimes against humanity, here families do not starve, father can work, children are never sold, and women cannot be impoverished because they choose to be mothers. Skeleton Woman does not see a time when a man holds a patent to any living thing, or where animals are factories, or were rivrs belong to stockholders. Hers are deep and fearless dreams from slow time. She will not be quiet or be thrown back to sea anytime soon.