From the Good Girls: What’s Home to You?
Anywhere the six of us are together!

Simple Beings …

who become …

Complicated Productions.

I’m a quasi-feminist. Don’t worry, even I don’t even know exactly what that means. I know this: God designed women to be different from men but equal in worth. I know some feminists who are mean and ugly. I also know some feminists who are beautiful and kind. We could spend our lifetimes trying to figure out exactly what feminism means to God, and then it won’t matter anymore!

But this week I read a little about Sojourner Truth, a pioneer in women’s rights. Her legend may be bigger than her reality, but she certainly ranks as someone I wish I had known in the flesh. Here’s a little tidbit of what she had to say to a minister who had claimed that a woman was excluded from some rights because she was not the same gender as Jesus. Here is her response as recorded by Frances D. Gage:

“Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wan’t a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?…From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid Him.”

Or how about this:

“If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder … ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”

What fun she must have been! As Rare Rocks we need to see the truth in feminism as well as the fallacies, but at the very least, we need to stay in the coversation.

Our daughter Claire was born premature at 25 weeks and weighing less than 2 pounds! Today she turns 5!

We are so proud of her. She is a TREASURE!

This article on Radiantmag.com is so great! You know how I love a good analogy. This one relates one man’s fight aganst the raging California fires to our need to be vigilant over our own spiritual lives. Loved it.

The other reason today is Facebook. I’ve had my doubts about the reliablitly of online social networks. I mean, are they a truly reliable form of authentic relationship? But today when my inbox said I had a message from an old friend in Sweden, I was giddy with excitement! I heart Facebook today!

This was so much fun last week, we have to do it again!

Serenity has posted about her “nest” before, a stash of books that follows her from room to room. I have one too; we get it from our Dad. His has become more of a library now, spilling from his side table onto wall-length book shelves and into boxes in the garage.

My favorite place to read is on my bed because it is in closest proximity to my books, it is comfortable, and it feels like a little escape in the middle of my busy house. Dan and I have enjoyed pulling our bedroom ensemble together over the years. It started with a left-over canopy bed from my parent’s downsize. Then my brother-in-law actually found a drapey, ivory canopy on a clearance sale in Omaha. More clearance sales found the gold comforter and shams. We paid full price for the deep red sheets (at Shop-Ko), but most fun were the pillows from Ikea in Chicago. My bedside table is cleverly organized (my husband may debate the use of “organized” here, but I promise it’s true) into three basic piles: school books, fun books, and God books. I love them all, and you never know what kind of mood you’ll be in when you crawl into bed at night. Or in the middle of the day.

I probably should review books here once in awhile. There are several must-reads for Rare Rocks. Isn’t it interesting how telling our book choices are? And nothing shapes your early identity like reading (or the lack of it!). But, anyway, today’s fun is just about where you read. And I read here:

American Lit may have paid off this week, Friends. Up until this point this particular class had me asking questions like, do I REALLY want to be an English major? But this week we read the early American novel Charlotte Temple by Susanna Haswell Rowson. I loved its old-fashioned boldness to preach through its story. I realize this is unacceptable in today’s literary world, but Rowson was only accepted as a writer in her day because she did promise to deliver a solid Christian message. Ironic.

Anyway, this is the tale of a young Charlotte convinced by the romantic promises of a dashing soldier to leave her boarding school and elope. Her tragic tale apparently ends in her death in childbirth after being abandoned by her supposed Prince Charming. Not so charming now. Rowson early in the novel (we only read an excerpt) even writes directly to the “sober matron” or mother who will read the book before her daughter. That’s how obvious the message is, but the writing is enchanting and the story is surprisingly transcendent. Of slimy guys who talk girls into doing things they don’t really want to do, Rowson says, “I wish for power to extirpate those monsters of seduction from the earth.” My sentiments exactly!

Here is my favorite line after Rowson describes the predicament Charlotte has found herself in. It is Rowson’s way of saying, Be a Rare Rock!

“…kneel down each morning, and request kind heaven to keep you free from temptation, or, should it please to suffer you to be tried, pray for fortitude to resist the impulse of inclination when it runs counter to the precepts of religion and virtue.”

Yeah, do that! : )