Everyday Canvas

Speaking up and in April

Prompt: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” - Audre Lorde
Do you agree or disagree? Have you seen situations where women have hesitated speaking about a topic even though they are very knowledgeable but feared their opinion wouldn't be welcome?

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Yes, I certainly agree. This doesn’t mean, however, that women (or men) should butt in and argue about matters that they are not knowledgeable enough and that do not concern them.

This prompt brought to mind the opening page of Jane Eyre when Mrs. Reed in the orphanage--after a complaint from someone named Bessie--decided to exclude Jane “from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.
“What does Bessie say I have done?” Jane asks and she is scolded.

I always thought this exchange sowed the seeds for the rest of the novel in which a young woman alone fights her way in the world. That Jane asked that question about her fictitious misdeed is a good beginning. Even though the novel was written during the Victorian times, it opens up the way for women to question situations concerning their selves.

In the same vein, the US law gives us citizens (women or men) the benefit of the freedom of speech. I think it may just be the best law ever invented in human history. I also defend the right to silence, kind of taking the fifth. Because what is the use of speaking and arguing in a situation where speech would hurt rather than help? For example, I would not present my opinion contrary to that of an Alzheimer’s patient, but if I saw someone berating or attacking an innocent person, I would say (or do) something.

Prompt: Write a poem, story or just share something in your blog using these words: April, life, love and law

Waking up alone,
ecstatic, mouth agape,
you begin to invent
a new life on
a buoyant morning
in thoughts cloaking
themselves with love
regardless of the law
of clouds that trick
you, an April’s Fool