women and gardener's 8th intelligence. apparently, i am a witch.
This discussion thread was locked by Gormy Cuss (a host of the Feminists group).
so, gardener's 8th (last. hmm) intelligence is the naturalist.
the grower, the nurturer and the teacher of all things wild.
i am this. i always was this. my dad was this. both my gramps were this.
4 of my 5 kids are this.
the randomness of the universe delivered me a chance to spend my "golden years" doing this. my little farm is the place i am. i spend ssoooo much time teaching, especially kids. i get visitors all the time. i have no fence. i live in a less-than average density area of the city. but it is still the city
i also, of course, get a little more than my share of freaks.
since i started this 2 1/2 years ago, i have had a dozen visits from the city, long chats with my alderman's staff, and a bazillion hours of tense neighborhood relations work.
when you have ZERO of the 8th intelligence, i can talk to you all day, and you wont get it. when you have it, which is to say, a lot of adults, and pretty much every kid, you fall in love with the whole place.
i have taken to making jokes about being a witch. i believe that this is what the whole archetype of the witch comes from. or vice versa. but i do think some of these people watched too many disney movies.
i actually had one neighbor react to my excitement that we once again have breeding crows in the hood, a decade+ after west nile virus wiped them out, with horror. oooo i hate the crows. i am afraid of the crows.
this fool actually called the city to complain that i was attracting crows. and the fool from the city actually repeated that complaint to me, like it was a legit complaint.
and of course, there are the complaints about rats.
i have places of harborage. not rats, just hiding places.
i keep chickens. just look on the interwebs for chickens and rats i was told.
(i keep one of the tightest coops in the city.)
when i acquired some formerly feral cats to combat THEIR rats, (we are nearly 0 food waste here, it isnt me.) they had a shit fit about that.
i have 4 working dogs. 2 terriers, yes, rat terriers, and 2 big bull dogs.
i am to blame for all animal noise on the block.
and that includes my roo, who i can barely hear on my own back porch.
so, anyway, why i bring this here is this-
i would like to tap the hive mind about witch trials.
i would like to be able to cite specific, documented instances of women like me, who were stripped of their property.
and ftr, i am the crone of story and song.
i am 60 yo, skinny, wiry, tattooed. unkempt white hair.
property.
a propensity to subvert parental authority by talking to children without permission.
a plot full of weeds. which i know the names and uses for.
and a very short temper attached to a very big mouth.
my first tat was my avatar, with the wording-
you say i'm a bitch like it's a bad thing.
and of course, i am master of dogs, cats, chickens, rats and crows. so far. i have my eye on a little black squirrel that just ventured out of the nest the other day.
so, my beloved hive mind-
load me up. i want the cites and the names.
(ps, yes, there may be a law suit in the future. we shall see. i may just pack up and move this act somewhere where i dont have to take this shit. my divorce settlement would keep my in umbrella drinks and fresh mangos for the rest of my life in costa rica. and i wouldnt have to work like a rented mule. either way, i will have the last laugh here.)
xo du
= new reply since forum marked as read
A few of us refuse to let it go.
But our culture, our systems, our educational programs and our economy and the marketplace, all of these require that we not only deny the naturist in us all, we are expected to work against it and can expect to be ridiculed if we don't get on board.
Screw that shit, Mo!
Keep up the good work and if things don't get better I'll meet you in Costa Rica.
Or Belize!
I've been in Mexico, almost to Belize, never to CR but love the idea.
And there are a number of venues that would suit your stories, educational, societal.
I attend and know of some great educational and sustainability conferences that fit, but I can also easily picture you in small venues-- at the community level and in several countries, where people still get up and fight the powers that be.
Here, I'm afraid we've mostly sold out to NASCAR, professional sports, Barbies and Botox.
He proposed that there were seven, including music, linguistic, kinesthetic, math, etc., which I remember seeming eerily similar to the classic seven liberal arts.
(nothing new under the sun)
Eventually, the list grew from seven and an oft-cited "eighth intelligence" was termed the "Naturalist Intelligence".
From an ASCD article:
Not that Gardner is the supreme being on matters like this, he merely coined the phrase, but he speaks to the Naturalist in the same ASCD article, here:
http://tinyurl.com/8th4CreekDog
Now, as the naturalist view of things can be a scary way of looking at the world, and challenge many conventions, social and religious, it's easy to imaging how many could be threatened by such ideas as communing with nature, womanhood being the powerful thing that it is, relationships with nature being greater than relationships to a patriarchy. And, further, it's easy to imagine the threat presented by powerful women who channel their eighth intelligence becoming the targets of harassment, lawsuits, and having their property taken from them.
I hope this helps.
But they'll burn you at the stake for naturalistic!
Kicking for more input.
