Little Girls and Goddesses

All the little girls who come to my house seem to be enamored of my goddess books and paraphernalia, including and especially the coasters, which feature pictures of goddesses from many cultures. Each girl has her favorite. Sarah's has always been Isis. Charlotte likes Diana. While we were waiting for Carey to get us lunch in the Ice Cream Parlor at the Museum of American History on the day we took our field trip to the Mall, Sarah, Charlotte and I got a table and, to pass the time, they started making up goddess cheers (modeled after some that Sarah had learned at "cheerleader camp" this summer) such as "Isis is a cool girl, rules over the whole world. We will, we will - praise her, praise her." These came complete with sound effects, including clapping hands and snapping fingers.

When we got home late that afternoon, Sarah and Charlotte retired to the basement den with several videos, including "The Paperbag Princess" and "Madeleine," a couple of my kids' goddess books, a stack of typing paper, and lots of colored pencils, and began drawing. They went steadily for three hours, occasionally coming up for air to ask what Carey and I thought of a drawing. I put a stop to it about 7:30 so they could eat dinner (during which they and I discussed what people believed about gods/goddesses) and get to bed at a reasonable time. But they worked for a couple more hours the next afternoon after our field trip to the Postal Museum, and then presented me with a new goddess book. It was very well developed, containing a cover, a title page, several goddesses, pictures of where they lived, and an end page. This is a photo of one of Sarah's pictures: The Goddess Joy, with her daughters Faith and Hope. They also had the Goddesses Sadie, Wolfy (and her daughter Mimi), Prettywing, Waves, Tiger Lilly, and the Mermaid Goddess. Interestingly, most of them were wearing the Hope Diamond.

Carol Christ (http://www.goddessariadne.org/) claims and probably most women know in their hearts and souls that women need the Goddess. I don't know how little girls can possibly get along without Her. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure little boys or men fare that well without Her, either. For some reason I'm remembering the pathetic inadequacy of the Sri Lankan men who lost their wives in the tsunami simply to take care of themselves and their children.