Mules and Mountains
You spoke of feeling like a donkey
And I was reminded of Susan Griffin’s
Book, Woman and Nature -- Mules
She begins, “We are the mules.”
The work we were bred for
The cleaning, nurturing
The raising of children
Cooking…calculating the measurements
It is said, we are not logical
The mule balks for no apparent reason
Suddenly we find ourselves in tears
Susan says, “…she is clumsy
With the dullness of labor.”
Form and function
Labor also has its’ grace
Grace, unnamed, invisible, surviving
I stand harnessed to the plow
I see the mountains
And remember
My burden is small in comparison
February 2, 2019
I have taken some of Susan Griffin’s words from her book, Woman and Nature, The Roaring Inside Her -- Mules.
7 comments:
Oh, the thought behind it speaks to me of the politics of labour and gender. The idea of mules is such a contentious argument that forays into what actually matters and who decides it.
I am pondering over these lines: "Form and function/Labor also has its’ grace/Grace, unnamed, invisible, surviving".
"I see the mountains and remember....." our spirits are born for so much more.......I LOVE this. I need to re-read Susan's book again soon, it is on my bedside table.
Mules have been so maligned and abused. They work so hard! Our spirits are born for so much more....yes they are. We always had mules on the farm when I was growing up. Stubbon yet so strong and so full of grace. No wonder the ancients used them as war horses. I loved our mules, all three of them.
Oh this sounds like an interesting book
I do believe that some tasks are woman's work. I learned that from a group of women I used to work with. It was my work at a watch factory.
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Some crucial thoughts to ponder, Annell!
Dear Jim, the question is – which tasks? Why do I suspect it might turn out to be the menial and/or the nurturing? And how did you learn it, from observation or being told by those women? And have you checked with any other groups of women? And how long ago did you arrive at this conclusion and have you re-examined it since?
Long story, Annell. At age 19. I had dropped out of college and so worked my way up to Set Up Man for a watch factory assembly line group having 16 women. Those women made me blush every day, it was part of their job to see who could be first.
The we lost a contract and I had to work on a line myself. Those new, and somewhat older, ladies were sooo nice to me. My job was to drill two holes in two different places in a brass watch piece. I had to put a disk-like onto a spinning jig, take it off, put it on differently and drill the other hole.
I never could make my quota and that would cause our whole group to lose its bonus. So while I was off for lunch the ladies would drill holes for me on my drilling machine until I came back. That was plenty enough so that my individual quota was always made and our group didn't lose its bonus.
From my work at Elgin Watch I deduced, first that some work, intricate types, probably including needle work and fine detailed etching, painting small details, lettering, etc. was more ladies work than for men.
Secondly that some women could be real stinkers. There was no such wrong back then as sexual harassment but for a while I was doing the # m e t o o thing.
I'm glad you ask, I generally smile when I try to classify a task as "woman's work" so as to be asked to justify my remark. My tongue is long, plenty long to go way up into my cheek. And I smile a lot. :-)
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