I Was a Failure
Substack reminded me that I wrote "Calling all Women" one year ago, and it would be wise to re-post it.
Why?
To show that I was wrong?
On July 16, 2024, I wrote in “Calling all Women:”
It's up to us!
"If you wonder if your mission on earth is over, if you're alive, it isn't."
–Richard Bach (Books: Illusions, Jonathan Livingston Seagull)
Incidentally, Bach sent a copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull to Ray Bradbury (one of my heroes) and asked him what he thought of the story. Bradbury said it was a nice little story and would sell about 15,000 copies. In April 1992, it went on the NYT bestseller list and sold 440,000 copies. It was reissued in the 1970s and became one of the most popular novels between 1970 and 1975. All in all, it sold 30 million copies.
People like little stories about a seagull who dared to fly where others have never flown.
We still enjoy stories about people or animals who heed a higher calling.
We're still human beings with a heart and soul, no matter how much division we have in this country.
Bach was a fiction writer, and whether his statement was true or not, it sang to me.
Have you ever wondered what your mission is?
I wonder about mine.
I'm a person sitting in Oregon, writing, thinking, feeling, blogging, and wanting to make a difference. A few hear my voice, but not in the numbers the world likes to deal with now. But I'm still alive and with fingers for the keys.
Have you noticed that many of us are afraid to say what we think because we think we will start an argument or a fight, lose friends, or be ostracized?
I am deviating from the original content here.
When I wrote the original "Calling All Women," the wealthiest man in the US was donating $45 million—that's $45,000,000,000.00—to the Trump campaign each month.
Well, they got what they wanted, didn't they?
Money does buy elections. A year later, we see what happens when two Titans clash.
Let me tell you a little story:
In a wild horse herd, the matriarchal mare runs the day-to-day business of the herd. The Stallion is the Protector, the Sentinel, and the Sire of the young.
What does the mare do with a bully?
A young male horse was terrorizing the younger foals. When the errant colt took a bite out of the backside of a young filly, the Matriarchal mare drove him out of the herd. (Being out of the herd is the worst punishment for a horse.)
When he tried to sneak back in, she kicked him to the ground.
This activity went on for a while, with the colt landing on the ground many times, and never getting back into the herd. Finally, he became docile, and the mare gave him lots of love. She scratched his withers; she nibbled his back. This was heaven.
Eventually, the errant foal became so loving that he would wander through the herd asking, "Do you need any grooming?"
(This was observed by Monty Roberts when he went into a wild herd to observe horse communication: The Man Who Listens to Horses by Monty Roberts)