One for the Ladies

Dearest hearts,

If there is no other thing that I can teach you, no other offering of wisdom or anecdote about those times I'd done something ridiculous, or nothing else that you may remember me by, I want you to be with me here in this moment right now.

I want you to turn off all of the distractions. Drown out the noise and focus in whichever manner is most conducive for you to absorb information and let it electrify your blood and bone to the marrow.

I am begging you, to take your hand and place it on your chest above your heart and feel it beating. Spend a moment this way, and just breathe in the company of your heartbeat. Life is fleeting, and you are alive. When you die, you can't do shit to change the world. Only what you leave behind can do that but you...your hands will be gone. Your heartbeat will be gone. Everything will be over and naught remains but the silence of unmaking; the unraveling of the mortal casing of your fire.

Now, look at your reflection: on your phone screen, your monitor, your reversed camera, your compact. Look yourself dead in the eyes and say: I will fight for myself.

Deadass say it out loud. Do not shy away from your own judgement. Whatever doubts about yourself you have are not important. Those are not here right now; in this moment there is only you.

Ladies, no one is going to do this for you. No one in the slow decline of a rancid and ruined world is going to give a shit about your carcass. The earth itself was made to retake you; to swallow you whole and return you to that fire from whence you came. When you were born, a spark was gifted to you, and you shall not betray it. It's always there as long as you live; no matter who your parents are or how it got to you, you were born with it. It could easily have been struck from you before you were born, but it wasn't. And you're here. And you MUST fight for yourself. That spark is always with you, and none but yourself can validate your worth. None but yourself can love you as you can. Society dictates what we should and should not be, how we should look, what THEY value, and all too often these expectations are unable to be reached by those who seek it. Fight for yourself.

If you are timid, find your voice. If you are brazen, raise those who are timid up and support them. We shall not eat our own any longer. We are born, we grow, we die. We change along the way, and every step can be measured in events or decisions or new beginnings. You have been weak, you have been tired, you have worn your threadbare spirit and expect it will never need mending. Women birth life, and for some that comes in a physical form and for others an abstraction; a starting over, a reinvention not limited by our biology. We are all spark bearers as human beings, and we have been told that one sex is lesser than the others. Will do equal work for less pay. Will fill out the gender roll assigned to them. Will always strive to satisfy others and put herself last. Will be silent. Will be submissive. And for some, that may be familiar and comfortable, but nothing about being human will ever be one size fits all. Fuck the system. Tear it down and make it our own.

Let today be the day you met your own eyes and said that you will fight for yourself. When you are able to acknowledge that your one and only chance at doing everything you've ever dreamed lies entirely on your shoulders, you know that the onus is on you to do these things. Support from friends, family, loved ones; these can help you keep going when you are depleted, but you alone were born and you alone will die and all true change MUST occur from the inside.

Stop making excuses and keep your hand over that heart of yours and wrestle your doubt to the ground and tell it I WILL FIGHT FOR MYSELF. Wrap yourself in the love that you've been denied, soak yourself in your worth. The spark in you is beautiful, but beauty is subjective and fleeting.

Because the world will fucking kill you. They will make laws that give easier access to death. They will call it many things, but will look the other way when you suffer.

Woman, fight!

FIGHT!

Your life can be defined by two verbs: living, or dying. Which will you choose?


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