In the documentary The Weather Underground there’s a great and poignant moment when one of the peace activists who bombed army draft stations (notably the only human casualties in both making and denoting were the activists) says; “The Vietnam war drove us crazy”. Yes. On Mother’s Day, if polls are to be believed, one out of six Americans watched a woman mad with grief and rage decimate a city and its’ inhabitants with her dragon.
Yesterday I found myself wishing for a dragon. I glared long and hard at the photos of the white men who voted to force women, no matter the situation, to bear children if pregnant. If looks could kill, my eyes were dragons. I imagined the slew of rubber stamps I could order: FUCK YOU GOP, DIE GOP DIE, HEX MISOGYNY, ASK ME ABOUT MY FEMINIST RAGE, and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I thought about how my life would have been different if abortion had not been available when I needed it and what it would have been like if I’d gotten pregnant as a teenager when I was raped. I thought about the heartbeats of the migrant children who those who are hellbent on taking away our rights don’t care about at all, who would happily rip away from their parents and put in cages. Or worse. I saw red. I’m still seeing red.
Today I realized I have a dragon. It is my feminist rage. I am not new to feminist rage. It’s been with me for decades, the fire breathing dragon I hold dear. A part of me that I know gives me strength and is to be used with focus and discretion. After the election in 2016 I had to dance the excess anger out in my kitchen night after night, finally having to stop when I pulled a muscle in my calf. But I still play The Clash regularly, singing loudly during The Clampdown: “Let fury have the hour, anger can be power. D'you know that you can use it?”
We can’t afford to go crazy. There’s too much at stake. Fury has the hour right now. We are dragons and we must direct our fire with precision. I may get the ASK ME ABOUT MY FEMINIST RAGE stamp. And maybe ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. But the others, I will just imagine and stamp SPEAD LOVE with a special kind of vengeance on the hankies. Because I will not let these haters drive me crazy. I will ground in the love I have for humanity and this beautiful planet. And I will continue to see red. That red is the life force. It’s our sacred blood and the heartbeats of all us who are living. It is the red dragon of life. May we use it wisely.