From the Chaplains
This week we celebrated International Women’s Day. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911, begun by a radical band of suffragettes. I was reading a novel about a suffragette the other day – women who fought for equality for women and their right to vote. The story goes like this.
It’s 1886 in Britain, a girl named Esme, sits under the dining table as her father and his colleagues sort through words to be included in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The public send in words on slips of paper, describing the word and its use in everyday life. Each day she listens to them make decisions about the words that will be included in the dictionary – a group of men deciding the voice and language of the people.
The words that are to be included remain in a pile on the table, the words rejected fall to the floor and little Esme scoops them up. Esme collects the discarded scraps to compile her own far more radical dictionary. One of the words that falls to the floor is “bondmaid” – meaning a young women bound to service for rest of her life. More and more words about women and their professions are rejected.
But she takes them, later she gathers with other women who compile a dictionary of “Women’s words and meanings.” She and her friends understood that the voice of women is integral to the voice of humanity. We are better together, than apart.
The story got me thinking about how we work together. This past week I saw our girls at Head of the River: Each stroke timed, rhythm in sink. Seeing the sisterhood in the squads and the teams, and their cheer squads. Their stamina, courage and commitment to each other. The speed was not based on the best rower, but on the team’s ability to row as one.
Then I had the privilege to be with the cast of The Addams Family as they warmed up for opening night. Humming, yawning, tongue trills. As they warmed their voices, Mr Schweinberger kept running through notes until they were in harmony, the curtain would only open once voices became a symphony, each unique but working together. My prayer is that we would continue to work from the understanding that we are better together, and together we can make a difference.
Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Reverend Cass Blake
College Chaplain