When so many women feel compelled to join the #MeToo campaign it gives me hope and it makes me despair. We need to seriously challenge the way boys in particular, but also girls, are socialized in our world. This education can’t wait until their teens, it must start at the crib. Cute little thin- wasted Disney dolls are not OK, nor is assuming that all boys will like playing with Tonka Trucks. I think women are better at getting together to discuss these issues but we need to find new places for men to have the discussions or find ways to join women in their conversations. Men need to sit and listen to the pain of women for a long, long time and humbly start over again, together rebuilding a more compassionate, respectful, inclusive culture.
Behind our facades, our bodies and our spirits are sick. We feel fragmented, encased in the traps of our illusions and denials…. We become anorexic to life; just as anorexics deny themselves the nourishment of food, we become so constricted that we are unable to take in the bounty of our existence…. Love and compassion lead to the ability to engage in honest intimacy with ourselves, other people, the world and God. The opening of the heart, the birth of compassion and love from within, is often the beginning of the true spiritual life.
Christina Grof