One evening while Anabelle was preparing dinner, she called out to Jane and said: “Come and help me prepare dinner, Jane. I will teach you how to cook.” Jane very spontaneously replied: “No, Lola, my husband will cook.” We, of course, had a good laugh; but the more I thought about Jane’s reply, the more I realized I was watching a great societal shift happening right before my eyes. All of five years and Jane was redefining gender roles from their age-old definitions.
Traditionally, mothers (or the women) have been called home-makers, essentially doing all the housework to transform a house into a home. And the fathers (or the men) usually ‘bring home the bacon”. This benign arrangement has worked for most societies over the ages. But it has also led to the exploitation and discrimination against women, since “a woman’s place is in the home.” In some societies and cultures, women are not sent to school for they do not need education if there are just to stay at home. They are subject to the men who bring home the bacon. And when they try to go and bring home the bacon themselves, women often earn less than the traditional bacon-bringers.
Jane, in a spontaneous display of infinite wisdom, saw through the injustice and inequality of this arrangement. Babies and young children, with the memory of heaven still fresh in their minds, still remember the wisdom that can only come from the Holy Spirit who generated them. As I grow in age, my memory keeps on failing me. But I can feel this memory of my ultimate origin slowly coming back. It is truly a full circle. At this stage, however, I feel Jane remembers more of what and where she came from than I can imagine what or where I am going to.
These thougts (and prayers) are a very reassuring realization for me.
“When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”
Luke 12:8-12