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Author Insight
Why power in flexibility?
The weeds are flexible and bend under the power and cast their seeds into the wind. Some tales in this collection, I have rewritten into a female narrative to understand what the female felt as she bowed to the social winds. The damsels in these traditional tales show what I believed about male-dominated norms and the skill I learned from the damsels to bend and succeed. Males are also damsels caught in the norms they protect. The folktales included are of a time and place that reveal attitudes use by women to survive the male norms, who had the POWER. Maidens, matrons, and crones, mere females surviving. For eons, social norms taught through folktales and legends written by males with their views of dominance. I once believed his authority the truth, valid, dictating my attitude that only males were authors or artists.
Book Excerpt
Damsels Overcome
Oak and the Reeds - an Aesop's fable
A magnificent Oak stood proudly by a quiet pool, and at its feet grew a cluster of modest and slender reeds. Whenever a high wind blew, the tree stood firm as a mountain reaching its limbs high into the sky. The reeds could only bend and bow.
"No wind can ever make me bow my head," said the proud Oak.
"Wait and see," whispered the reeds as they swayed with the wind, "wait and see."
Soon came a furious storm. The reeds were shaken and tossed in the gust this way and that way. The mighty Oak stood tall and straight defying the storm. The wind came faster and more ferocious. At last, the Oak’s roots tore from the ground; the tree fell with a crash.
After the storm passed in the morning light, the reeds stood tall. "You see!" They said softly to the falling Oak. "We bowed to the wind, and we survived. You resisted and perished."
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