The Schrodinger’s Cat of the Feminist World

Potential and Probability in The Women’s World

INSPIRATION TO WRITE

I was listening to a podcast, The rise & fall of The Wing, on The Slow Newscast when I hear the phrase “the Schrodinger’s Cat of the feminist world”. So I started writing this post. It strikes me, gobsmacks me, in the middle of my forehead. I shudder a bit as some sort of quantum irregularity works itself (selves?) out and aftershocks ripple through my body. Well, I am listening to this three years after the fact… I’ve been busy ok? Corporate feminism?!?!? Of course, it did not work out. Such particles cannot be entangled seamlessly.

DESIRE TO VOICE GOODNESS

I am seriously enthralled with possibility and potential. I am terrified by the evil that seems to be expanding its grip on the world. I am getting older.

I attempted to recommence on this post on the last winter and this past spring. Didn’t happen.

Writing normally requires little effort from me, other than sitting down and starting. The story reveals itself. Or at least that is how it used to work. But as I get older I now question why I am doing this. I am 66 years old, and will never succeed in the ways I imagined in my youth. I have had tremendous success in life, but not of the sort most people seek. I’m not rich, or famous. But I am content, my basic needs are met.

CAN WE WRITE IF WE DO NOT HAVE A DISCONTENT?

What motivates you?

To the consternation of some people I meet, I feel my words have meaning and impact. I only need to have a bit of influence to be happy. I only need to exchange my words, a smile, or a touch with one person to have made contact which might influence some small action of that person. That is how change happens. Information exchange is life.

I ENCOURAGE WOMEN TO WRITE…

to publish themselves, not become someone elses’s idea of an author. As long as I can, I will write. I will not be bummed out that I haven’t been been published in The New Yorker, or Science. I had a few pieces in my life published in “Podunk parenting” and in a few trade publications. It just wasn’t fun to write about things that were not that interesting even though I did know tons of stuff about those things as well as how to do research in those areas.

I will continue to coach women to write. Write for business, fine, but if you just want to write for some unknown reason inside yourself, do it. You may find a whole new part of yourself you can use to motivate yourself, be happy, or explore some previously unknown motivation.

HEADY SHIT, PSYCHOBABBLE, OR INTUITION?

Probably none of these. Use your voice however you can. It is good for you. Reread. Notice how your ideas flow. Talk to your ideal reader, listener, or your intended avatar. That is marketing speak for who you want to have read you who is also likely to actually do it. Here you have to be careful, if you start shaping your writing toward an audience who will read you, but those people aren’t people you you want to talk to, or they want to read things you are not interested in writing, the mismatch will, sooner or later, become uninteresting and you will avoid writing. Write what you love. You will figure out your voice when you have zeroed in on your subject and have an idea of who your reader is.

Personal writing is much like a field of dreams. Do it for yourself, damn it. If someone likes it, all the better.

Blogging as a cottage industry it has become in the third decade of the 21st Century exploits women’s desire to create as it constricts women’s voices through a corporate feminism model. Yes, we are celebrating women’s voices, but we should not be chasing after nickels and dimes to help build up some sort of slushy pile of ideas per some advertising area for corporations to mine for ideas and trends. Write what you want.

If you want to talk about how knowing about how quantum entanglement has shaped your understanding of religion, do it. If the beauty of stitchery in the 17th Century excites you, write about that. If you think banning books is an offense to the Goddess, write it and speak it. Often, no one will speak if you don’t start the conversation.

WHY SCHRODINGER’S CAT?

Is the cat alive or dead? Both states, or neither, until you interact with it? Write and see where it takes you. Set the butterfly free. Perhaps there is something living in your words of which you are not aware. Put it out in the universe and someone else may take your starting point and transform it.

We are all entangled. The world is changing. We are butterfly wings. We are progenitors of tomorrow. We influence the quantum world with our actions. Write. Just Write.