I love to say, only partly joking, that the ultimate feminist statement is “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!” Immediately after that statement is the question, “So what is all this crap, and how can we clean it up, so we can have fun?” There’s a little more on “saving the world” further below. Meanwhile, just for fun and in honor of Women’s History Month in March, here are some of my favorite tidbits combining fun and work in the world around us.
I’m told that this wonderful photo of the laughing girl and camel went viral years ago, but I only recently saw it and loved it. The photo reminds me of one of my favorite books, Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World by Helena Norberg-Hodge. This month I found an interesting piece about “Super Confident Ladakhi Women.” Among other contributors to women’s confidence and joy are Self Help Groups in which the women work together to improve the village as well as their own lives.
A couple of seemingly dissimilar women come to mind. Political activist, anarchist revolutionary, and writer Emma Goldman held the philosophy that “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” And, while playing the role of a sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe was more interested in world affairs than one would guess. She often carried around a biography of Abraham Lincoln, supported the civil rights movement, and opposed the 1950s McCarthyism.
SAVING THE WORLD SO WE CAN HAVE FUN
Seems to me that what keeps us from having more fun is . . . the system! It’s a system in which the bottom line goal is evidently “making the rich richer and the poor poorer.” The evidence for that is simply that that’s the result no matter which of the two heads of the obsolete two-party system is in power, Republicans or Democrats. This result hurts everyone’s chances for a great environment, peace, health and fun. In order to deal with the system we have to organize together. Even that can be fun, but we certainly have to keep our sense of humor in tune.
Another favorite saying — especially the older I get! — is by Dorothy L Sayers, “Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”
Writing this little blog is a great example of fun sometimes being cleverly disguised as work. Once I get into it, it is fun, and so why do I put it off until the last minute and distract myself with all sorts of things? Who knows? Meanwhile . . .
Let’s have fun — and change the world — for the better!