Sympathy Pain

“If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn’t be any god -” she said when the sound went dead and the camera suddenly turned away from the stage so viewers would be distracted. Chopped off were the words “goddamn wars in the first place.”

I have to say I am not a Sally Fields fan. She actually annoys me on film…unless she is playing mentally disturbed people…or a flying nun…then she’s great. Yes, I even hated her in Steel Magnolias. But what she said…and was censored…got me thinking. Why is this a general thought among the fairer sex?

Is it because their grief is more when a son or daughter is lost? Do mothers hold the market on the pain of loosing a child? I’ll never be a mother, but I get the same cold chill and sick stomach every mother gets every time I think of something happening to Jack. I find this is generally blown off with the phase “But you didn’t go through nine months with him in your body.” True, I did not, but I was there when he took his first breath. I was the first, other than the doctor, to hold him. There were days that the only reason I got out of bed was him.

And lets look at women rulers throughout history.

Medea…now the story may have been just good drama, many tails have her deserting or killing her children to spite the king. Obviously, the maternal instinct didn’t help her children.

Cleopatra- Had children with both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. We see how many wars and battles occurred because of her whims. Having ovaries didn’t stop her from being ruthless.

Queen Victoria…who married her cousin…and had the longest reign of any English monarch, virtually disappeared after Prince Albert died, leaving the thrown relatively uninhabited, and her country without a queen. Lets not forget he Crimean war took place during her reign…she did have some help from Napoleon…

And lets not forget Margaret Thatcher. She was a mother of twins. Under her, Great Britain, during the 1981 Iranian Embassy Siege, for the first time in 70 years British armed forces where authorized to use lethal force. also, she allowed 10 political prisoners to starve to death during a hunger strike, stating she could not give in to demands that they have their rights returned. Not very “motherly”.

My point is, just because you are a parent, rather mother or father, the world is a very heavy thing to have on your shoulders. I realize that some of the women listed above were just figure heads or even fictionally presented, but others still either saw the necessity of war or were selfish enough not to care. There are lots of mothers out there that do awful things to their children, and believing that one in power would be incapable of the same thing to an entire nation is short sighted at best.

I am considering voting for Hilary…so I’m not anti woman in positions of authority, I just don’t think that having mother’s “rule the world” would change anything…other than there may be nap and cookie time every day. I kid.