The Fox

Those of you who are regulars know that I have been reflecting on Le Petit Prince.  I revisit it every few years.  It feels different each time I read it...or I should say, the truth harvest alters...it tells me something new.  This time around I am preoccupied with the fox.

He desperately wants to be tamed, to be connected to someone, to something.  When I was younger I thought this was upside down.  To be tamed was to be held down,  to be made to crawl.  But the fox sees it from quite a different angle, because what I didn't understand before I had a taste of real love, is what it means to find something to be truly unique, something that gets inside of you, creates and fills a space, and never leaves you, in spite of the inevitable vicissitudes.

I see the love story more clearly now than in years past, or perhaps I am simply in greater need of  it.  So much damage has been done to so many people this year.  You really need to put your ear to the rail and listen.  Retirees have lost their savings, and many don't have a time frame that allows them to sit back and wait for recovery of their ravaged pension and retirement funds.  

LGBTs who didn't realize it before are beginning to understand that they cannot wait for a champion to stand for them.  I know many who saw this coming, and their voices fell on a lot of deaf ears in their community.

I am surrounded by furious women.  Do not misread me when I say they are pissed.  They are really really pissed.  If you go to the dictionary and look up the word pissed they will be there.  We all watched what happened to Senator Clinton this past year.  Yes, she was denied the nomination, and thus the Presidency because the powers that be in the Democrat Party wanted The Waffle King, but that's not the heart of the matter.  Yes, she was made a target of sexist and genuinely misogynistic attacks, the most agregious of which came from "news" broadcasters, but this isn't the source of the fire, nor is it the fact that it was done again to Governor Palin (in spades). 

No, it's the fact that when they spoke up and said, "What the fuck is this bullshit," the powers that be, the media, and the supporters of the Waffle Maker, told them to shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down, oh and by the way, spread 'em and when we're done with you bake us a fucking cake!"  We heard this most recently from James Carville who basically told women that they were making a mouse out of a molehill.

Well guess what Jimmy boy?  A colleague of mine is watching over one of her two daughters who is fighting to regain her life, with half her brain, thanks to her ex brother-in-law, because the system that was supposed to be protecting her and her family, a system largely run and controlled by men (though there are apparently women in high places that have blood on their hands over this), failed them utterly.  

I won't bother to ask how many women will have to be victims of domestic violence before the nation and the world stands up and says, "enough," because the threshold for that was crossed at 1.  Millions of women have died worldwide, but still it goes on.

BJ Kling has someone unique in all the world fighting for her life.  People need to start looking within themselves and figuring out what's really important.  The pissed off women around me?  They know what's important and they are getting ready to fight to defend it, and take what is theirs by right.

There's a not so silent genocide happening around this world.  The women around me, and the men who support them want it stopped.

Why is it so much easier to sever a bond than forge one?  Why is it that what should be valued most is so easily discarded or ignored?  What is more precious than a living soul?  What should be treasured more?  Gold?  Silver?  Power?  It's hard to run with the weight gold anyway.  Why is it that the voice of a mother, a daughter, a sister, wife, a friend isn't coveted more than those things?  You have no idea what you are missing, and what is being wasted behind closed doors, and in out of sight out of mind hospital rooms.

From the fox the little prince learns the value of the heart, the value of connecting with something or someone, and what is really important.  He learns that though there may be millions upon millions of roses in the universe, his is unique.

"But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."

A rose of Betty Jean Kling's is fighting for her life.  Take a moment to send your mind.

This message from a friend of BJ was forwarded to me earlier today:

Louisa had another surgery last night, before she went into the O R they told BJ Lou's brain function was 4 out of 15, and she was on total life support. BJ thought she had lost her little girl. She came through surgery, but called the family in this morning, Lou's blood pressure had dropped to 45, and they were talking to them about removing life support.
When they reached the hospital, however, Lou started rallying around, and actually started breathing somewhat on her own. They are giving them hope again, but are telling them the 3rd day after this surgery will be the test.
BJ asked about the brain function, and they were told there is a chance the undamaged side of her brain could compensate for some of the loss .
The doctor is suprised and said she has rarely seen anything like this. Louisa is really fighting to hold on.
BJ asked me to pass the word on and to thank everyone for their support, and to request everyone to continue to pray for Louisa.

When the little prince comes to say good-bye, the fox shares his secret with him:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

You are responsible for that to which you are connected.  What are you going to do about it?