In ancient times, wealthy Chinese families submitted their young daughter to the court to serve as a concubine in the hope that she might marry the emperor and elevate  her family to the privileges of officialdom, political influence, and wealth.

 

Passing the requirements of beauty, intelligence, and pleasant poise, fourteen-year-old Wu  Zeitian became a lower-rank concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong. Her duties as chambermaid in the ailing emperor’s bedroom were to clean his chamber, change his bedsheets, empty his bedpan, and attend  his needs. Wu profited from Taizong’s stories of plotted family coups and assassination attempts. He shared the court’s “back road” intrigues, war strategies, advised her whom to distrust, and cautioned her to prepare a defense against the multitude of those clamoring for  privileges. A good listener and a cheerful companion, the bright young woman exceled in the language of the people and embraced the lessons that would serve her future.

Acknowledging International Women’s Day, we ponder what it takes to succeed. Presidents of international organizations and major universities, Leaders of Labor Unions, and CEOs of major corporations are ever more frequently being headed by women, who have demonstrated innate qualities of womanhood.

To compete requires intestinal fortitude, self-confidence, courage to take risks, and resilience to rebound from failed attempts. All contribute to success. Ancient Chinese wisdom says out of failure comes opportunity.

In the modern Western world, women sometimes forget the conditions of their ancient past. Freedom to speak your mind, freedom to vote for your choice of leader, freedom to govern, to hold public office, freedom to marry whomever you choose, freedom to shop, hike, or walk the streets or trails without a veil.

As a “Power Woman,” you treasure your right to accomplish, to choose, to voice your concerns. However, that is in the West. Women from other lands, like Pakistan, still hazard stoning for holding a man’s hand. Think on this when you see local women marching for “Their Rights.”

Soft, tender, sweet. . .well,  not always. Throughout history, women have defended hearth and home alongside brave men. To protect the cave when predators peered into the entrance exploring the wonderful smells of cooking food––or just human flesh––Paleolithic woman grabbed a branch of wood, thrust it into the fire and carried the flaming faggot forward to meet the audacious intruder. As her mate was away hunting the woolly mammoth for food, her responsibility was to protect the dwelling, the child, and the precious fire at all costs. Her challenge was vital. And continuous.

Strength to Kill a King

You are reading this because as a child you were taught the magic of words. Reading widely accumulates knowledge and develops wisdom. Writing builds opinion, and combined with experience, exudes power..

Built in the seventh century BCE, Ashurbanipal’s private, scholarly library in ancient Nineveh is one of the most important archaeological discoveries, filled with Assyrian history, court intrigues, secret intelligence, hymns, rituals, and prayers. It may have been the model of the great libraries of the West, the historic competing libraries at Alexandria, Pergamum, and Ephesus, which held the treasures of early literacy. Science, philosophy, poetry, and math filled the scrolls and informed scholars––those who could read––or perhaps those who could pay a scribe to read for them.

How long does traditional tribal thinking permeate the Middle East and other parts of the world? And why do Muslims cling to tribal tradition and claim that Allah commands the veil when the Quran only instructs women and men to dress modestly? Why has the instruction become so exacerbated as to demean women?

In the earliest times, circa 2000 BCE, the Assyrian kings gathered beautiful women from their conquests and sequestered them in harems. The ancient Egyptians, Ottomans, Mughals, Chinese, and Byzantines also treasured their harems, private pleasure property of the monarch. The harem was the exclusive residence for the king’s pleasure. To assure that wishful observers did not taint the women, the inmates were covered so that “none could wish to know them.” They were indeed locked in a “gilded cage”––that wasn’t always effective––even trusted eunuchs found a way to inveigle neglected harem women.

Defining Woman is not so difficult that a public official cannot describe or identify fifty percent of the  population.

The same arms that tenderly cradle her newborn, lovingly wrap around the curly head of her dying warrior, comforting him, before she anoints his mortally-injured body––her newborn’s “fountain of life”––for the tomb.

The same hands that ladle out porridge to her wee ones, to the extended family, the farm hands, and guests, are the same calloused hands that feed the chickens, milk the cow, collect the eggs,  haul water, clean the toilet, and help guide the plow.

Thoughts of the Greek myth of the famed huntress Atalanta, victorious hunter of the feared Calydonian boar with her bow,  wrestling Peleus, hero king of Phthia, father of Achilles,  pique our curiosity.[1] The circumstances of the match and its outcome swirled around in my mind all night. The myth is curious because a water vessel painting of a woman wrestling––much less against a powerful man––is counter to the reality Greek women experienced. It is known that Spartan women publicly exercised, even wrestled, in the nude. Their husbands, off to war or living in the barracks with other soldiers-in-training, women wrestled, raced, and competed athletically against other women outdoors in the fresh air. They enthusiastically exercised, priding themselves on bearing and rearing strong,  healthy, Spartan sons.

Have you ever been so hungry that you could eat “nearly anything”?
Well, you are not the first to be that ravenous, for early humans searched for food daily in the air, on the ground, and even under the ground when choice was sparce.

As with all living creatures, hunger was a driving force for early humans. Birds and all wild creatures spent most of their waking hours in search of food. Hunter-gatherers had to locate climes where edibles grew in the sunshine. When seasons changed, they migrated, sometimes from mountainous terrain to the shores of the sea. When a huge climate shift occurred in prehistoric Japan and large animals in the mountains died from the cold, meat eaters became seafood lovers. With a shift in the earth and atmosphere, climate changes periodically­––naturally. Necessity demands adjustment.

Human beings live with our biology. We address The Law of Nature and dismiss dismal fears imbued in ancient world Myth.

As we breathe the breath of life, contemplate the myriad thoughts of our minds, and respect the functions of our organs, we celebrate—with understanding—the mysteries of  preparation and conception of new life.

For all time, women’s curse—decreed by a deity—is to desire her husband and to bear his child in grievous pain. Her desire and his pleasure perpetuate the race.