P#ssy Grabbing
Years ago, my husband called to say he was going to be late to my I-got-a-new-job-and-we-are-all-going-out-to-celebrate happy hour. He explained had been busy chasing a p*ssy grabber.
Brian was in grad school at USC at the time. With computer and man bag in hand he walked the same mile to his car to start the routine commute home. He noticed a sketchy character on his bike seemingly stalking a college girl walking about a half a block in front of him. High alert and heart racing, Brian watched as said sketchball reached up said college girls skirt and grabbed her p*ssy.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Brian threw his precious cargo to the ground and started chasing sketchy mcsketcherson, who let me remind you, is on a bike. We knew over a decade of track meets and endless miles would pay off. Luckily USC is peppered with hunky frat boys and Brian met eyes with one and screamed “Stop him!!!”. A beefy Sigma Chi loves a do gooder task like this. So he pummeled sketchboy into a stop sign which was the end of the life of the bike and the beginning of the foot chase.
Running throughout the streets of LA, now beginning to tire, Brian screamed for the neighbors to call 911. He continued to chase stupidsketchyguy and in the end sketchboy, who, yes it is so complicated yet we must remember, probably didn’t have any positive role models or much love growing up, was arrested. Our prayer is that he never assaulted another woman again.
So, this, my shiny friends, is what I wish for all of us. I wish that when circumstances out of our control come up we have done the work to have the strong conviction to know what is right and what is wrong, how to stand up for what we believe in and to do so with grace, kindness and compassion.
So what if we all took a beat to feel, think and sense what we believe in, what we know is right and what is wrong deep down. Or maybe we already know what we believe in, what if we stopped to take the time to know what the next best thing to do is how to act mindfully and powerfully to support our beliefs?
I am exploring what I know and believe and how to live that out loud. I am learning it is my job to hold space and how important that is and how to fully show up for that. To speak up when I hear a cat call. To encourage my friend to vote even if I am scared she will roll her eyes at me. To really listen without judgement (so freaking hard, ps).
THIS is how we can change the world for the better, this is how we can be a positive force and to stand up for what we believe in, by knowing what we believe in in the first place and how to be in action around those beliefs.
Only then can we act in alignment from a place of power and truly serve. We can do it in our own backyards when something like this happens or through government or non profits or through a smile or the way we raise our children or through our job or our energy.
One thing I know for sure is that we do have all the answers within AND it takes pausing (maybe longer than we like) to create the space to remember the answers.
So. Here are some fun (well I think this kind of stuff is fun) questions to get us started:
What are three things you know for sure?
What do you believe is the meaning of your life?
How can you and how do you positively impact our world?
Top 3 core values?
What legacy do you want to leave behind moment to moment?
What breaks your heart?
Who is your greatest role model? Who do you admire?
I also know that if we continue to do the work, to reflect more, love harder, fight the judgements, stay uncomfortably open, all the p#ssy grabbing, racism, sexism, bigotry and so on and so forth would be eliminated.