I had the best of plans for the letter U. I had decided early on that the perfect word for the letter U in this years’s challenge was the word Umiaq, which would give me opportunity to talk about gendered toolkits and tools, not pink hand drills, but real distinct tools that are women’s boats such as umiaq, or women’s knives such as ulus. These are both examples from languages of peoples from the circumpolar region inside the Arctic Circle. But there is also the gender of many words which I have always found intriguing that some languages have this and some do not.
But then I remembered Ursula K. Le Guin and wanted to remember her inspiring work. Surely I should talk about her groundbreaking novel about gender, The Left Hand of Darkness. Or her sensible words on aging.
Then the words unique and ubiquity kept jumping into my mind. Perhaps I could throw in a bunch of other words that deal with the iconic feminine that did not fit in elsewhere? Universal principles with unique, even idiosyncratic, examples.
Or perhaps the iconic nature of the umbilical cord but then I would probably have to talk about the placenta and I don’t want to do that. Personal phobia. Ick.
And how can I pass up an opportunity to talk about the usurious nature of many economic practices in the modern western world? It is not just about exorbitant interest rates but about women needing to take them out far more often than men due to lesser pay, hours being cut, layoffs, and having to care for multiple generations during family ill-health.
Then there is the way women are uniting in the United States to gain leadership and governance rules.
These are all worthy topics for discussion. So, if you were writing about iconic female connections to items, words, and concepts, as well as iconic women, which one of these would you tackle?
Iconic Q: It is about Quality
Quan Yin, Quality, Quilts, Queer… or perhaps Quakers, or Quest… such a quandary as to what to write about for this A to Z Challenge for the letter Q. The later portion of the English alphabet poses a special challenge as the words that start some of the letters in the last third of the set have almost no words starting with those letters that are in common use and in these challenges the coverage gets fairly thin and predictable.
I have examined Quilts in this challenge in 2016.
And I covered the Quixotic Q in 2012.
I love Quan Yin, the female Buddha of compassion, but I just wasn’t feeling it as an entry for this challenge. I am not sure we can say she is iconic as until 1200 AD, or so, she was most often depicted as a male, and in many parts of the world still is male.
Then there was Queer for which I could also work in the word Quaker by covering the quote my mother repeated to me time and again to show me the folly of judging others. As she learned it, it went as follows,
Everyone is queer but me and thee, and sometimes I think thee is a bit queer.
The quote, “‘All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.” is attributed to Robert Owen in 1828. He was a bit of a utopian, so I understand why Quakers and Amish are supposed to use this phrase. My mother learned it from her grandmother, who was born into an Amish family. I am quite sure that this in no way referred to sexuality, gender, or status. I could go on about this phrase and all of which it is indicative , but this does not really apply to the iconic feminine either.
Quality
But I finally decided to borrow Leanne’s word Quality (over Quantity) as she wrote on Cresting the Hill. She is doing a Zen thing for the challenge. On reading her post I immediately began thinking of the women who have inspired me and how they stressed quality in all you do as well as how quality is more important than quantity in nearly all things. Myrdene, my major professor, an anthropologist, taught qualitative methods, as quantitative methods have no real meaning as you cannot be sure you are counting the same things that others are counting.
A mother knows this. Children are not equal units. You cannot compare your first two children with your last two children. Or at least generations and places where many children were or are common in families know the birth order argument. Parents have favorites. Some children become the family scapegoats or black sheep. Male and female children are, to this day, valued differently in many cultures.
A mother also knows that food stuffs are not all equal. You cannot compare, nor add together, the processed, empty calorie items available in corner fast food markets in food deserts with the fresh produce available in farmer’s markets that feature locally produced, organic, fresh in-season vegetables and fruits.
Nothing is comparable. As we age we learn that we are truly unique within our overlapping patterns of behavior. Quality is perception. Number is … well just number. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Boys with Toys.” And we also know the “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Women tend to not think this way. Lots of men do not either, but our modern world tends to emphasize the accumulation of goods. A good life, a well-lived life, happy and healthy children who have happy lives ,and if they want, have children of their own. These are not additive. Our lives need to be analog, not digital. Degrees of meaning are shades of experience. Checked off boxes bleak and without nuance. Quality is like a texture. Communication is qualitative, while letters and sounds can be digitized, the content within communication is qualitative.
To me quality is a feminine concept. How do you see it?
Iconic M: Mama
Why do most languages have something like a word that sounds like mama that means mother? Etymology, the study of the history of language and words, tells us part of the story, but biology tells us the other part. And we really can figure out why some things come to stand for other things, like a mmmmm sound for the one who birthed you and feeds your from her breast and for a while in a child’s life is indistinguishable from the child’s self. A pretty good article all about this can be found in the Atlantic.
We naturally make sounds before we can consciously shape the mouth, tongue and lips. Unclasping the lips from nursing and releasing a breath makes something akin to a ma or na sound. The mother reinforces the baby making that sound and the baby emulates her words and the positive experience. And wah lah we have a pretty damn near universal word recreates with every generation. Me beginning with the same sound as ma is not universal but is an Eurasian phenomenon.
This month I said I was working with iconic imagery that is associated with the essential or elemental feminine. Mama is one of the words that truly meets the criteria of iconic. Everyone has a mother. The woman, food, comfort, love, and a state of contentment are components of a preverbal association laid down in our earliest experience. In this way a mother, and as a universal experience, the mother truly stands for a concept in such a way such that it is more than simple representation, and that the icon embodies the concept.
The inverse is also true; we come to include the child’s response of naming Mama as part of this essential and symbolic element of this primordial relationship. Messing with icons breaks all cultural rules. This is also why creepy dolls who say, “Mama” are the subject of horror stories.
I offer this A to Z entry up as a roll out for Mother’s Day posts.
Women, Information, and Estates of Governance
Women require information to govern in a democratic fashion just as do men. Understanding the evolution of a government, the systems from which it emerged, is essential to preservation, and betterment, of that government. Trajectories are real aspects of living systems and exert influence on contemporary processes.
From 18th century France, there were three estates of society:
- the clergy (religious heads)
- the nobility (rulers)
- the commoners (everyone else who is not a slave)
Among the political commentators and thinkers, the media has been labelled as the fourth estate of modern day.
In modern democracy, the three pillars include:
- the legislature (makes laws)
- the executive (president or prime minister)
- the judiciary (the courts)
The media has been labeled as the fourth estate of modern society.
The Fifth Estate, which has been labeled citizen journalism, has beeen broken down, I would argue incorrectly, into two types of journalism. The first being an extension of The Fourth Estate and the second as some sort of standalone pillar. In fact, to take the property analogies of estates and pillars of society one step further, I contend that information that can stand alone apart from a voice that speaks it, as is the case in a pamphlet, a book, or a digital transmission is the beam, brace, or buttress that makes pillars on estates into the cultural home in which we live.
Living systems, and we live within and are a part of a living system, are open systems.
I am not going to go any deeper into systems theory, self- organizing systems, or cybernetics, (but I would note, as an aside, that if you want to understand systems science through a woman’s eye, look at some Lynn Margulis quotes.)
Life requires change and the ability to bring in new elements and energy, as well as to delete, turn-off, or store-away other elements and processes, including tinformation paths and flow.
The transitions we are experiencing in the world are becoming more and more dramatic as we are living on the fulcrum of a tipping point where we cannot long balance; change will happen and the slightest actions, or inaction, by individuals can and will change the direction, the trajectory, of the path upon which we will find ourselves.
We do not know how this will all shake out. New technology brings new behavior. Gutenberg could not have known, nor could Martin Luther, that when Luther posted his 95 Theses, 500 years ago, that others would find his words so moving that they would use the new tech of the printing press to print and distribute hundreds, then thousands, of copies of Luther’s discussion points in what was literally the first viral post.
Women’s voices are strong, and the distributed nature of the digital web is quite feminine and whether we are using hashtags (#meto #timesup #shepersisted) or writing our own theses, we are engaged in public communication as people have been since the first humans gathered around an evening fire. Citizen journalism is a good thing if done with care. Most of us know which people we can rely on to give us good information. We know which bloggers, editorial writers, and cartooniswts we can trust to base their works, including opinion pieces, to be based in fact. How those facts are interwoven into “truths” are far more problematic. When we give our time and eyes to uncritically watching or reading “news” that is not reporting facts but into building viewers or followers, we are hurting ourselves and world that we communally build with our consumption and conversations.
We must, as women who are approaching 100 years of having the vote in the United States, become as responsible and careful with the information we create or share as we are with the food we give our children and families to build bodies. We are powerful and we hold the information that builds our children’s minds and our future knowledge used by our society in our hands.
Our mothers and grandmotherws figured out how to make cakes during the rationing of sugar during World War II.
We must figure out how to make our homes and businesses equally celebratory as we ration ourselves to verified information.
We must educate ourselves and navigate the current estates and pillars with a fervor that only mothers acting to preserve what they love can act.
Clever Gifts Of Storytelling Grandmas
I hope you will consider how the gifts you choose for grandchildren, nieces, and nephews build relationships and generate storytelling, sharing, and yes, even learning.
- Updated for 2017
- Originally posted October 22nd, 2015
Disclosure: Gabrielle Polt Balkan, author of The 50 States is my step-daughter. Other than parental pride per the atlas, and the Amazon Associates links, I received no compensation for any items in this review. All opinions are my own.
I suggest a set of gifts that include: an atlas, a board game, and a puzzle. Classic gifts. Tactile, interactive gifts are perfect for after meals and afternoons during family visits. And if you are clever about it, no one will ever know that these gifts were all frames for promoting legacy storytelling and sharing family history.
ATLAS
The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A with 50 fact-filled maps!
I would love this book even if it was not written by a kid whom I first took to many of the spots listed on the Arizona page of the Atlas, such as the Copper Queen in Bisbee, where we made her, as a teenager, stay in a room with her twerpy little sister.
This freshly pressed atlas is so much more than a geography book. It is fun and interesting. Just look what honchos in the publishing industry say about it.
“A stylish atlas that evokes the character and diversity of the country, equally suitable for coffee tables or family vacations.” – Publisher’s Weekly
I totally agree with PW; it is a great edition for a Grandma’s coffee table.
Update: 50 Cities is now also available! As is The Book of Bones. Yes, both by Gabe, step-daughter extraordinaire.
The Book of Bones is not geographic, but you can talk about all the places you can find the bones or the animals that have the bones.
BOARD GAME
I was lucky enough to discover the the Binkele Family booth at the March 2015 Tucson Festival of Books with their Kickstarter-funded, Mensa award-winning game, Trekking the National Parks.
Trekking the National Parks is for ages 12 and up, but I suspect there are some younger folks who can handle the demands of the game. And of course pairing older and younger participants into two person teams allows younger kids to join in the game playing.
Why this puzzle, because it encourages talking about place. You know, the place where Grandma lives, the place where your mother was born, the places we went to on vacation when your mom was a kid. National parks are also a wonderful tool for learning geography. State capitals are okay, but parks and grizzly bear, geysers, and other park- associated animals and wonders provide memorable links for recalling places.
You may order directly from the family business site too.
Travel is a great subject for story-starting, so if you want a game for another age level or travel subject I recommend starting at this post on the Vamo blog that covers 24 travel-themed games.
PUZZLES
Plan on spending an evening browsing the jigsaw puzzles you will find on Amazon. For this trio of gifts, you can find a perfect for family fun for all ages with a puzzle.
The items that caught my eye, and interest, when I researched puzzles for this article were not travel-related as much as place- or time-related. What a great backdrop for discussing life on the farm or a particular city.
Are these not the cutest, retro puzzles for talking to a small child about what life was like when you were their age?
You can do travel-themed, complex, Ravensburger, 1000 piece puzzles or simpler Melissa and Doug puzzles, but if you are going with the suggested geography theme for younger kids, I recommend GeoPuzzles. Why?
- They offer varied world and country specific maps.
- There are maps in multiple languages.
- Most importantly, the puzzle pieces are the shape of the country.
There is no better gift than the gift of conversation, unless of course it is an educational and fun gift given with love.