Becoming a Righteous Babe...

Remember that band Righteous Babe with the awesome stickers with the buff lady on them flexing her biceps? When I look at myself in the mirror, I frequently ask myself, "are you a righteous babe?" What do I mean by that? Well I try to regularly take inventory of myself: my morals, the standards I set for myself, and I see if I've actually been living up to my own expectations. Lately, I feel I've been doing a much better job then I was, say, four or five years ago. I'm trying to be more conscious of my actions lately and trying to follow the consequences of them in my mind, to see what sort of impact I am making. For example, as a part time nanny to a sixth-month old, I think a lot about the sorts of things I do with him that might impact his consciousness. Will he glean love and acceptance from me? Or will he always feel nervous around women like me, or women in general in the future, because of actions I take? Will he feel insecure? Will he feel unloved or unlovable? How we treat children, especially in those earliest days of their lives, really really makes a difference. Think about this little factoid; in a child's first two years on this planet, he or she develops his or her entire personality; this means that every second of that child's development in his or her first two years really counts. Birth, for example, helps shape a child's personality (part of the reason I am devoted to becoming a midwife.) Everyone who holds, talks to, plays with, feeds, changes or bathes a child in his or her first two years makes an impact on how that child sees the world; therefore, whether he or she becomes Charlie Dommer or Jesus Christ, really depends on those first interactions. I think about these things as a watch little Jack.

I also think about my impact on the world as I interact with elders; for example, my senior friend Sliver (just one of many older friends I've made over the years.) Sliver is one of my many adopted grandparents (she's actually a little too young to be my grandma, but still..) I adopted her and she adopted me, for several reasons. One of those reasons is we are both transplants in this town and both of us feel a little betrayed by our families, for different reasons. I was sad to hear Sliver tell me she rarely hears from her sons and daughters and grandchildren. We can't treat our elders this way! It is shameful and disgusting; many of our elders have given their whole lives to raising good families only to have those families turn their back on them once they are grown. Elders aren't trash to be tossed; they are wise old ones to be learned from and listened to. Every time I talk with Sliver, she has wisdom for me; ways to improve my life, jobs I could apply to, mantras of positiveness that I really need to be reminded of.

The Iroquois Confederacy has an old saying that I try to keep in mind that says something to the effect of "we need to keep the next seven generations in mind with every decision we make..." This is a good reminder;

Love,

Sycamore Fitch

Share this post on:

 •    •    •    •    •