Mermaid

One Man's Dream Mermaid

The
easiest
thing
in
the
world
to
do
when
you
don't
want
to
look
inside
yourself
Is
to
find
escape
hatches.

Where Do Mermaids Stand?

Giants, Wizards, and Dwarfs is a game. It involves some intellectual decision making. But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won. A room full of wired-up grade-schoolers were organized in to two teams.
Consensus on group identity was achieved.
The game began...
The excitement of the game had reached a critical mass.
The Leader yelled out: "You have to decide now which you are--
a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf!"
While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at his pant leg. A small child stood there looking up, and asked in a small concerned voice,
"Where do Mermaids stand?"
Where do Mermaids stand?
A long pause...
A VERY long pause.
"Where do Mermaids stand?" says he.
"Yes. You see, I am a Mermaid."
"There are no such things as Mermaids."
"Oh yes there is, I am One!"
She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard or a Dwarf. She knew her own category, Mermaid, and was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against the wall where a loser would stand. She intended to participate, wherever mermaids fit in to the scheme of things, without giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was a place for mermaids and that he would know just where.
Well, where do Mermaids stand?
All the Mermaids--all those who are different, who do not fit the norm, and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeon holes?
What was his answer at the moment?
"The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!"
So they stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards, Giants, and Dwarfs as they rolled by in wild disarray.
It's not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist.
He knew at least one personally.
He held her hand.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

~M. Twain

Thus far women have been the mere echoes of men.
Our laws and constitutions, our creeds and codes,
and the customs of social life are all of masculine origin.
The true woman is as yet a dream of the future.

~Elizabeth C. Stanton, 1888

And so we leave home, we leave the apron and...put
on...tailored executive suites...
And now we take ourselves
to the specifications of this
world we are so eager to enter. We strip our bodies of
flesh, our hearts of the overflow of feeling, our language
of exuberant and dramatic imprecisions. We cut back the
flight of our fancy, make our thoughts rigorous and subject
it (this marvelous rushing intuitive leaping capacity of ours),
to measures of demonstrations and proof, trying not
to talk with our hands, trying hard to subdue our voices,
getting our bursts of laughter under control.
~The Hungry Self

There cannot be a crisis today!
My schedule is already full.

Women's capacity to respond to unspoken needs is a magical trait. Why in the world should we disclaim it?

A woman turns a doorknob, but so slowly
so quietly, that no one wakes
and it is she alone who gazes
into the dark of bedrooms, ascertains
how they sleep, who needs her touch
what window blows the ice of February
into the room and who must be protected:
It is only she who sees; who was trained to see.

"True woman" is not a dream of the future, but a presence of now. The balance is a reformation for men, for women, and children who will not settle for tender or power but want both.

Kiss Sleeping Beauty Good-bye
Woman is the Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White,
she who receives and submits.
In song and story the young man is seen departing adventurously in search of a woman;
he slays the dragon,
he battles giants;
she is locked in a tower, a palace, a garden, a cave, she is chained to a rock, a captive, sound asleep:
she waits.
~~Simone de Beauvoir,The Second Sex

Whether it is Snow White in her glass coffin
or Sleeping Beauty in her bed,
the adolescent dream of everlasting youth and perfection is just that:
a dream.
The alteration of the original curse,
which threatened death, to one of prolonged sleep suggests that the two are not all that different.
If we do not want to change and develop,
then we might as well remain in a deathlike sleep.
During their sleep the heroines' beauty is a frigid one;
theirs is the isolation of narcissism.
In such self-involvement which excludes the rest of the world there is no suffering;
but also no knowledge to be gained,
no feelings to be experienced.
~~Bruno Bettelheim,The Uses of Enchantment

If at first you don't succeed,
destroy all evidence that you tried!

My Little World

The easiest thing in the world to do when you don't want to look inside yourself Is to find escape hatches.
	Where Do Mermaids Stand?
	Giants, Wizards, and Dwarfs is a game. It involves some intellectual decision making. But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won. A room full of wired-up grade-schoolers were organized in to two teams. Consensus on group identity was achieved. The game began... The excitement of the game had reached a critical mass. The Leader yelled out: "You have to decide now which you are-- a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf!" While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at his pant leg. A small child stood there looking up, and asked in a small concerned voice, "Where do Mermaids stand?" Where do Mermaids stand? A long pause... A VERY long pause. "Where do Mermaids stand?" says he. "Yes. You see, I am a Mermaid." "There are no such things as Mermaids." "Oh yes there is, I am One!" She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard or a Dwarf. She knew her own category, Mermaid, and was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against the wall where a loser would stand. She intended to participate, wherever mermaids fit in to the scheme of things, without giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was a place for mermaids and that he would know just where. Well, where do Mermaids stand? All the Mermaids--all those who are different, who do not fit the norm, and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeon holes? What was his answer at the moment? "The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!" So they stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards, Giants, and Dwarfs as they rolled by in wild disarray. It's not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist. He knew at least one personally. He held her hand.