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Why The Goddess Letters?
What after all has maintained the human race on this old globe,
despite all the calamities of nature and
all the tragic failings of mankind, if not the faith in new possibilities
and the courage to advocate them?
--- Jane Addams
I wrote The Goddess Letters because I realized that, like most people, I accepted it was normal for men to have the greatest access to political and financial power, for women to care for home and family, and for God to be male. We are, after all, a patriarchal culture.
Even worse, I believed it was desirable to want that access to power, acceptable that the ends would justify the means, and normal that if you play the game, you play to win. I was, figuratively speaking, a fish who didn’t understand the water in which she swam.
As I read the books listed on the Important Books page, I realized there were other ways to live and another side to history, but I knew very little about any of it. Then I wondered why I knew so little, why these alternate histories are not taught in our schools, and it circled me back to the fact that we are a patriarchy and all of our institutions support our current culture.
What's sad is that there were ancient cultures more socially advanced than we are, able to coexist peacefully for thousands of years, and they still had indoor plumbing! I'd sure like to know more about them, wouldn't you?
And then I realized that our culture not only accepts male supremacy, it also views nature as a commodity to be used by man; nature has few rights in a patriarchy. This idea horrified me and I decided it was time to join the growing number of voices raised to ask why things are the way they are and how they could be different?"
The Goddess Letters is an attempt to answer those questions.