The interesting thing about this song is that it started out being about women——and it still can be about women and their struggle in this country and all over the world to survive. 

All of the words apply to women—rough times, strong barriers, wrong rules, slow, slow change, anger, rage.

And at the same time the song never uses the word women. It can also be about race, or LGBTQI, or those of us in this country who are working toward justice and reason for the common good.

It can be about refugees. 

But along with the frustration words, there are other words—standing firm together, forging a strong bond, growing in new ways, birthing dreams and visions growing.

But ultimately it says that through every day we will survive because we’re survivors.

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Mother May I

If ever there was a time for a woman to not ask permission, it is now. Whether it is mother, teacher, preacher, husband, next-door neighbor, congress-person, I’m ready for each woman to think it through, ask questions for clarity, and decide for herself.

No asking, no putting myself in that position. If I make a mistake, so be it. I learn from that too. But I don’t learn from leaning or from dependency. 

Just go for it.

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Survivors

The interesting thing about this song is that it started out being about women——and it still can be about women and their struggle in this country and all over the world to survive. 

All of the words apply to women—rough times, strong barriers, wrong rules, slow, slow change, anger, rage.

And at the same time the song never uses the word women. It can also be about race, or LGBTQI, or those of us in this country who are working toward justice and reason for the common good.

It can be about refugees. 

But along with the frustration words, there are other words—standing firm together, forging a strong bond, growing in new ways, birthing dreams and visions growing.

But ultimately it says that through every day we will survive because we’re survivors.

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I really do have a necklace made of sparkling rhinestones that says “BITCH” and I wear it when I perform this song. I claim the word for women. I claim the word that says “Be yourself. Don’t always try to please. Stand up tall. Let him call you a bitch – it beats being a doormat. Smile. I’m not 5’7” like I used to be. I still have a dark hair. And if going after what I want is selfish, then so be it. I’ll sing it in a minute and stretch as tall as I can as I sing “I’m just a tall, brown-haired selfish bitch.”

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Tendering

The first song in the CD Woman Songs Peace Songs is “Tendering” and I still identify with the very personal focus that spurred the original writing. Now there seems a whole new level on top of that personal one. It’s the level that speaks to the whirlwind of things going on in the world, in this country, sometimes in our own backyards. And it definitely speaks to that feeling of being alone and overwhelmed.

Please, right now, I need some tendering. I want some tendering. And I give some tendering too.

Mother May I

If ever there was a time for a woman to not ask permission, it is now. Whether it is mother, teacher, preacher, husband, next-door neighbor, congress-person, I’m ready for each woman to think it through, ask questions for clarity, and decide for herself.

No asking, no putting myself in that position. If I make a mistake, so be it. I learn from that too. But I don’t learn from leaning or from dependency. 

Just go for it.

Restroom Door

I still notice the sign on the restroom door as I enter. I would say that in the last thirty-five years the signage issue has improved and many more restroom doors say “Women” than used to. But I stay vigilant because occasionally there are still attempts to be cutesy. 

That’s easier for me to tolerate than when the other door says “Men” and my door says “Ladies.” I wrote a song once that isn’t in this collection that said, “Hey you need to know I’m not a lady—never have been one so I’ve been told. And I don’t intend to be a lady—it is just not one of my goals.”

Just put Women on the restroom door—Thank you.

——————

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Tendering

The first song in the CD Woman Songs Peace Songs is “Tendering” and I still identify with the very personal focus that spurred the original writing. Now there seems a whole new level on top of that personal one. It’s the level that speaks to the whirlwind of things going on in the world, in this country, sometimes in our own backyards. And it definitely speaks to that feeling of being alone and overwhelmed.

Please, right now, I need some tendering. I want some tendering. And I give some tendering too.

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You know some men are changing. Some men aren’t. I’m not in favor of abortions and at the same time I am in favor of a woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body. I don’t give that over to men to make that decision.

There are a host of things that can be done to support women——education, birth control, strengthening self-esteem, being sensitive to women who have been raped. I’m in favor of each of those.

I’m also in favor of not curtailing the right of a woman to choose abortion.

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Songs of peace are a significant part of the CD “Womansongs / Peacesongs” and I’ve got a gun sounds like children arguing but also amazingly like nations threatening. 

I’ve got a gun —— well I’ve got a tank —— well I’ve got a sub —— and on and on it goes. In this song it ends with a neutron bomb and in reality who knows the horrors the could be still to come if we don’t put a stop to it.

Even the building of greater weapons has environmental implications. 

The song ends with “Who will be first?” And isn’t that the question.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said: We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

I wrote this not with a pie-in-the-sky attitude but with a strong conviction that we have to go the distance in negotiation and cut back drastically in bullying and bluster.

It takes really courageous and brave leaders to say: “Let’s meet and talk.”

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Step Close

This song was written out of my experience years ago, when it seemed I felt like I wanted to be close to someone, and then when it happened, I wanted to be alone again. Ever feel that way?

Like close is one thing—but a person can get too close, too smothery, where the boundaries almost get merged and there is no me, and no you, as separate people, anymore.

That’s the kind of closeness that I guess even now I don’t want.

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We Need Plowshares

In Isaiah 2:4 it says “He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

I think a great deal of the time many of us feel there is nothing we can do. We live our lives as peacefully as possible but how can any one of us influence governments and those greedy for power? I’m not sure one of us can. But I do believe that ten and twenty, and hundreds and thousands banded together to say “NO” can begin to influence world leaders.

Right now we are headed in an impossible direction and it is going to take many of us to turn things around.

Thinking of my grandchildren, I would sign up in a minute to be one of those thousands who speak up.

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