Gifts Mary Daly gave me

The inadequacy of language, or to be more precise, the broad, subtle human politic that determines language is fact, is history. The sadness that germinates anger and conflict is the "post factum" canonization of language as reality rather than temporary, as an imperfect sign, and the dismissal of progress in thought and attitude as sinful, heretical, divisive, or in terms of Martinez' brief essay - radical feminist.

Growing up I had no problem with our "Father", God as "He" even as Sister explained that God is "spirit". My large family divided evenly between "sisters" and "brothers" saw no real difficulty in the women's hats and the "girl's aisle" and "boy's aisle". And, really I shouldn't because just as language is “imperfect” so too are our meager but inevitable human attempts to “concieve” of diety. I did grow in the sense of God as “parent”, embracing all that is the most and best of mother and mother hood, father and fatherhood in one ineffable embrace. Discovering Henri Nowen's description of Rembrandt's “Return of the Prodical Son” focusing on the hands of the “father”, evoked an emotional “Yeah!”- “The...left...strong and muscular....The right “....refined, soft and tender....It wants to caress, to stroke and to offer consolation and comfort. It is a mother's hand. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is , indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present”.

When my daughter was pregnant with her first child, she and her husband did not wish to know the sex of their child nor were they content with the sexless and impersonal “it” - inadequate to signify the “person” evolving, peeing and burping, already and embraced by mother as no “father” could. God as “spirit” or “ineffable” is as inadequate as the “it”, so until the new word evolves let us at least be tolerant of “He” or “She” and recognize that the “problem” is with human intransigence, patriarchy, dominance, misogyny and the fear that “femininity”, whatever that is, will always be impotent as a “force” for good or worse, “intrinsically evil”.

Reading the bible and substituting Lady for Lord and She for He makes it clear how absurd our myths really are. Praising the Lady/Mother for SMITING our enemies is an I-opener.

ever quest, please

and as you already know
English is an utterly incompetent language for expressing the divine, the universal, for Love.