And so the sport continues.  The bashing of women and most tragically, this bashing is done by our own: Women.  Women savaging other women for the choices they make and the living they embrace.

Sarah Palin has tossed us in the pot of stirred judgment yet again.  The tsks and raised eyebrows around arising from childbirth beds to sit behind a desk.  The wonderings about the kind of mothering that would lead a seventeen-year-old to her own mother status.  The furor of these days over the “proper” role or conduct of women has been news media fodder and it hurts us as women, especially when women join the savaging fray.

One of the core challenges to patriarchy is this notion that dualism is:  there is right, there is wrong, there is woman, there is man, there are maternal ways and there are not.  Increasingly, feminists and others are coming to appreciate the nuances and rich depth of a world conceived and lived between the axis.

Do we all have opinions about what makes for healthy mothering and working and living?  Of course.  But as soon as we sweep those judgments over the lives of others, we have lost our ability to appreciate the complexities of life faced by all people:  Governors and single moms, professionals and stay-at-homes.

The woman manipulation of this election is palpable.  Perhaps it has always been so.  My prayer is that this does not cause us to turn on the very thing that will join and save us:  relationships, linkages and hope.  There is so much at stake for both parties and all of creation. 

It would be good to live and let live in a spirit of grace.

E