"Sister, We're Two of a Kind"

"Sister, 

you've been on my mind

Sister, we're two of a kind

So, sister, 

I'm keepin' my eye on you.

I betcha think I don't know nothin

But singin' the blues, 

Oh, sister,have I got news for you, 

I'm something,

I hope you think 

that you're something too...

Umm hmmm, ummm hmmm... umm...mmm... Okay, okay I can't quite get it!  But surely you did know that with this being the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite movies, that I was going to find some kinda way to include it in one of my post.  We are up the Genesis 20 and trust and believe you me, it has been a very interesting journey to say the least.  So, if you've been following, and I hope you have, then you know that we are Reading the Bible Again for the First Time.  And I tell you it seems that there is more drama in the bible than the Atlanta House Wives, Desperate Housewives, and Dexter put together.  I had to throw Dexter in there because of all the killing that has been going on so far.  Starting off with Cain and Abel, then God getting so fed up with the humans that S/HE drowned them all, with the exception of Noah, that righteous drunkard that passed out butt-ass naked, exposing himself to his son Ham, right on up to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - that was not destroyed because men were having sex with men.  Hell it seems more plausible that the ancient text wants us to know that whole cities can and will be destroyed, not withstanding a precious few, when injustice, a lack of hospitality, mistreatment of others and abject depravity is the rule and not the exception.

I don't know how many times the ancient text recorded God's frustration with human kind enough to "kill 'em all!"  Lord today!  Where is all that grace we heard about?  Oh that's right, according to Christianity, that doesn't happen until the NEW TESTAMENT.  Whatever!  Anyhue, moving right along...  But for the sake of consistency, if you are new to my blog, I suggest you take a look back at the month(s) of March and April and read the posts; "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," "A Mistress and Her Slave," and "Both Of Us Got Babies Now."  Because I believe I have already given sufficient time and attention to these chapters, I want to do a little daydreaming and take some artistic license of my own as it relates the tension between Sarai and Hagar.  

Here we have two women, who we know don't have any more rights than the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  Each of them are the victim of an androcentric (male centered) society, that regards women as nothing more than property, with the sacred worth of something just above a dog.  Sarai has been pimped out by her husband, Abram and she in return pimps out her slave-girl, Hagar to her husband.  Sarai's behavior reflects an unconscious response and reaction of one abused who in turn acts in like manner to abuse another.  It isn't her fault and she is not the conscious monster of her oppressor, rather she does what she has been groomed and conditioned to believe is the way of the world.  It is nothing more than the learned behavior of her oppressor in the ways of oppressing others.  We can see this in examples great and small - from families, to relationships, to entire systems of governing.

African Americans took on the disciplinary tactics of the slave-masters to discipline their children and each other.  In like manner, women take on the oppressive tactics of men to oppress other women and so, on and so on and so on.  But just once I would like to tell the story of Sarai and Hagar in the same way of Shug Avery and Ms. Celie.  After having climbed from under all the stale, stank, musty and funky waters of sexual abuse, shame and worthlessness, they found each other in the midst of their own painful and tormented lives,  to reach out from behind the social and cultural paradigms that kept them in bondage and enemies of one another to be that story of liberation and freedom for the other.  Each of them in their own way and at the appointed hour acted on behalf of the other in a selfless kind of love to help the other get free.  If only Sarai, could have seen the beauty of herself reflected in the dimly lit eyes of a scared and abused Hagar to care for and protect her and in so doing care for and protect herself, we may have read a different narrative.  Consequently, the sons of these two women could very well have grown up to be loving brothers, as opposed to enemies, destined to war against each other until this world is no more.

Oh how I wish more people would get a comb and scratch a love song of liberation out of another hurt person's hair.

Scufflin', 

I been up that lonesome road

And I seen alot of suns going down

Oh, but trust me,

No low life's gonna run me around.

So let me tell you somethin' sister,

Remember your name, 

No twister

Gonna steal you stuff away, 

My sister,

We sho' ain't got a whole lot of time

So shake your shimmy 

Sister,

'Cause honey the 'shug' 

is feelin' fine."

                   (Quincy Jones)

© Dorinda G. Henry, 2010

THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!