past present future

NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 14

look at my profound heart-felt
aspirations
rooted in social and religious values
aiming at a happy future
for everything and everyone . . .

then look at the reality:
a rudderless humanity
in a neglected and violent environment

yet, with a right to life and to survival
for all —
so much remains to be done

dear man, will we together
take this task on our shoulders?

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

Historical note. Tina was fighting for equality in the Church. At the same time she became keenly aware of the much wider issue of gender inequality on a global scale.  Many human beings still live sub-human lives. The natural world faces enormous challenges. She hopes that men and women can solve these issues together, with recognition of genuinely equal responsibilities. In her painting she depicts on the left Adam and Eve in paradise (the past), the couple in the middle still shows a dominant male (the present), the crows on the right are future generations.

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.