Extraction

 

Coal Barge, Ohio River, June, 2018

“If you are a hammer everything looks like a nail,” right?  Or, since I recently had a molar pulled, I’ve been thinking—ahem—deeply about extraction. About trauma and pain. About “Keep it in the ground.” About The Extraction Economy. About rape. About women.

Let me be clear: Keeping the remaining reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil in the ground is imperative. Absolutely. Keeping a cracked and festering tooth in my head? Probably not a good idea. So, last week, reluctantly, very reluctantly, I agreed to undergo—well, I’ll spare you the details.

Out of this past week’s trauma and pain has come such tenderness! First for myself, formerly known as Ms. Got-It-Going-On, who now humbly answers to Sort-of-Glued-Together.  (What the hell was I thinking when I gave myself one day to recover? Jeez.)

Oh, such newfound tenderness for our raped Mother Earth! Such abundant tenderness for all who have been used, plundered, abused, invaded. Most, most importantly, such tenderness for my sisters. Who can speak with such authority about—and against—the Extraction Economy. Who can connect dots the patriarchy doesn’t even see. Who can bring our collective tenderness and wisdom to the table, to the board room, to the voting booth.

Because, yes. We got it going on!

 

 

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3 Comments

  1. Wow, talk about intersectionality! When we humans extract coal from one of Mother Earth’s mountains, we don’t even put in any stitches, let alone an implant.

  2. Dear David,

    Well, hello, there, David! WOW!!!! WOW here!!!!! My absolutely AWESOME brothahfriend, David, I so appreciate and enjoy your great observations above about Patricia’s brilliant sharing and declaring on intersectionality in her very engaging blog post article here. WOW!!!!! Patricia has very much indeed made very many relevant, urgent, and important points here in her greatly masterful composition in the written word. WOW!!!! YOU, TOO, David, have come up with some very keen insights regarding Patricia’s so chock full of such sagacity article here. David, I so enjoy reading with such sheer blessed joy and reading pleasure your very great comments and observations! What a joy! All of Patricia’s very empowering blog post articles, other fine and excellent writings, and awe-inspiring, and eye-opening books are such a joy to read and to bear witness to with pure reading pleasure! David, you both are such a joy and a blessing! Please have such a superbly super Sunday!

    Blessings and Peace and Love and Sincerely Always, my brother, David,

    Your sister always, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa

  3. Dear Patricia,

    Well, hello, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you AND FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely precious and dearly special soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW, sister, Patricia!!!!! WOW, here!!!!! Oh, how I've so longed for so wanting to and so yearning to wanted to respond with all of my comments the way I so love to do much sooner than this to your beautiful, brilliantly beautiful, very engaging and endearing blog post article here. I am not feeling so well and somehow as well I injured my hands and arms very especially my right hand and arm(I'm right-handed). What I think happened is that my large purse was too heavy for a long time and I needed to clean it out and I kept lifting up that heavy bag and putting it on and off my walker wheel rollator on the arm of it and I think that threw out my arms and hands, especially my right arm and right hand. I FINALLY cleaned out that silly bag to make it less heavy. UGH!!!!!!! The other thing that hurt my arms and hands very especially my right arm and right hand is that I push my remote for my TV for a real long time every day like for over 30 minutes straight every day setting up all that I wanted to record on my DVR every day and I think that that as well had me accidentally hurting my arms and hands, very especially my right arm and right hand so I've cut way back on scheduling stuff with my remote. UGH!!!!! Plus I've been sick anyway with my very bad, permanent, and chronic physical disabilities and pain flaring up and I've had some allergy symptoms I think(I have year-round allergies that are even worse this time of year)or the symptoms could be cold symptoms or my asthma acting up a little bit. WOW, Patricia, WOW, what a sheer blessed joy to FINALLY be able to respond to your very stupendous blog post article here, and, plus it's such great fun for me, too, my darling friend!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sister, OUCH, I am praying so hard and so much about your very painful extraction of that molar, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia!!!!! OUCH!!!!!! I just know somehow that that wasn't very comfortable!!!!! OUCH!!!!!! Sistah, I've all 32 of my teeth through some sort of major miracle-my parents wouldn't take me to the dentist growing up, and, in fact, I only remember going to the dentist once or twice growing up and with all of the abuse in every way toward me growing up it is truly very much indeed a miracle that I've all 32 of my teeth, sister!!!!! WOW!!!!! WOW here!!!!! Sister, I'm so glad that I still have my wisdom teeth which is why I'm so full of such wisdom!!!!!! 🙂 <3 LOL!!!!!!! Sometimes the dental people say that I should get the wisdom teeth pulled and they say that nothing is wrong with the wisdom teeth right now but just as a future precaution in case something were to go wrong with them later they usually pull people's wisdom teeth. I replied that I would have none of that and that I didn't want my wisdom teeth pulled unless absolutely necessary!!!!! Sistahfriend, I, too, have had some issues with my teeth like with the molars and other teeth with old fillings chipping off bit by bit. I had a root canal several months ago and a crown put on a molar. Sisterfriend, I for sure try to stay on top of all of that with my silly teeth. It can be trying for sure, my so, so very dearest friend! WOW, Patricia, I just so love here how you built your astounding blog post article with its great theme on the Extraction Economy starting with the story regarding your molar being extracted to segue into this outstanding writing with these very pertinent and and vitally important themes and topics on the Extraction Economy. WOW, Patricia, you've so astutely woven all of this together with such excellence, brilliance, and radiance, sister!!!!! WOW!!!! WOW here!!!!! Sistahfriend, you are so, so very right on as you very aptly here share and declare on about rape, about women and girls, about the rape of our Mother Earth. I think on all of this and I think of how very, very many women and girls across all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities are courageous survivors of rape and all forms of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment in all of its vile and ugly aspects and I can for sure see here how there are such parallels here with the rape of our Mother Earth, rape, and women and girls. YOU have made such powerful points here, sister!!!!! We are all sistahs together in our vast global sistahhood as women across various backgrounds, races, ethnicities, classes, nationalities, and in all of our vast and beautiful variety and array!!!!!! We all share the common denominator of being survivors of the very harsh brunt of such perniciously pervasive sexism, misogyny, and patriarchy under the very egregious and grievous, relentless oppression being absolutely under siege from all of this!!!!!! WOW, Patricia, YOU ARE so right! It IS absolutely very imperative that we keep the remaining reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil in the ground; Sistah, oh, how I just so, so very much love how you've once again as usual as always as ever feature and include such very informative links here all of which tell of the very dangers of not keeping these precious and vital preserves in the ground with the people in the links making such wise comments on the subject like with Pope Francis for example. WOW, what a surprising blessing when you discover that out of this past week's trauma and pain that you've found such tenderness. I just so love how you share and declare here how you formerly saw yourself as Ms. Got-It-Going-On and now you humbly answer to Sort-of-Glued-Together. How brilliant here when you make that connection from the very telling quote from the creative genius's poem, our Rainer Maria Rilke. WOW, I'm just so, so very glad, thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that you've here very graciously and generously revisited this very remarkable poem here, sisterfriend!!!!!! I love so how you share and declare on the newfound tenderness for our raped Mother Earth. She is very much so continuing to be ravaged and completely plundered. I just so appreciate how YOU connect all of the dots here which patriarchy doesn't even see as you say so wisely here, Patricia. There ARE very much indeed very many parallels as to how very, very many women and girls have been used, plundered, abused, and invaded and also as to how our poor Mother Earth continues to receive all of that evil maltreatment!!!!! WOW, I am absolutely riveted by how you've with such creative genius spoken about all of these factors and then to make things clear and plain for all of us as to how the Extraction Economy is connected with such intersectionality to all of these concerns and that this Extraction Economy is very deleterious for all of us and for our darling Mother Earth, too!!!!! WOW, YOU ARE so, so very right on here, Patricia, as you very deeply ask of all of us in these very telling words, "Who can bring our collective tenderness and wisdom to the table, to the boardroom, to the voting booth." And then as you very sagaciously go on in sharing and declaring for each and every one of us with these very emboldening words as such a clarion call here, " Because, yes. We got it going on!" WOW, Patricia!!!!! WOW here!!!!! I heed your very necessary clarion call here and I say with such hearty and resounding words, "Yes, sister!!!!! I say, "Amen, to that, sisterfriend," and, "Praise be!!!!!!!" WOW, Patricia, I am just so, so very inspired here from YOU, daring friend, and your very uplifting words here just spurring me on to even more intentional, concrete, and definite action for YOU and all of my sisters, for our ravaged Mother Earth, and for all of us as a people and Spirit's precious children!!!!! WOW!!!! WOW here!!!!!! WOW, what a magnificent article here by absolutely AWESOME YOU, Patricia!!!! What a perfect title you've here for this very perspicacious writing here with a picture–perfect picture here very finely accompanying this very enlightening article. WOW, I so love, too, here, how this awesome picture is from my former state of Ohio with this very picturesque picture of the Coal Barge on the beautiful Ohio River. WOW!!!! WOW here!!!!! WOW!!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! YAY for our very sistahhood and friendship, Patricia!!!!!! WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! Patricia, I thank-YOU and Spirit continually FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR VERY PRESENCE IN MY VERY LIFE!!!!!! 🙂 <3 AWWWWW, I just so, so very much love and cherish YOU, Patricia, and YOU ARE my very life's and eternal blessings FOR ALWAYS!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YOU ARE such a sheer joyous blessing, sistah!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, AND SO DO I A WHOLE LOT AND A WHOLE BUNCH, TOO, sisterfriend!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, YOU ARE just the very greatest and the very best, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3

    Very Warmly and Sincerely FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely special and dearly precious FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're FOR ALWAYS so, so very much, Patricia, sisterfriend of mine, with My and Spirit's VERY PEACE AND LOVE FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister of mine, AND with SUCH BLESSINGS AND SUCH VERY EVEN MORE BLESSINGS FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, friend of mine, 🙂 <3

    YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian black woman AND FOR ALWAYS IN THE VERY GREAT SPIRIT OF UNITY AND SOLIDARITY, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 <3

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