As we pause for Easter, it gives me great joy to write about SISTERHOOD – the bonds amongst women, from shared conditions and experiences. The affection and loyalty that women feel for other women who they have something in common with.
AN ISLAND OF SANITY – the HOOD
What an island of sanity amidst a world bombarded by an unseen disease, a climate that is hovering just this side of ‘out of control’ and the most barbaric war of the modern age, playing out in real time before our very eyes 24/7, on our screens.
Christine Dowling writes in Disappointment; “There is space within sisterhood for likeness and difference, for the subtle differences that challenge and delight; there is space for disappointment - and surprise.” And Joy McCullough writes, “Sisters share a bond unlike any other - thornier, but also tender, full of possibility.” Both of them affirm for all of us, male and female, that such a hood ads soul to life.
SISTERHOOD is an age old concept, but it has not aged; rather it is a construct for the modern age and testament to the power of bonds, the harbouring from storms and nourishment from stress. It has joy as a foundation stone. It boldly presents a quiet affirmation to the meaning of life. It’s a space to hold dear. It is to be jealous of – if your hood is without it.
THE POWER OF THE HOOD
This week, I watched the power of SISTERHOOD, as 3 friends of newly appointed Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson shared their journey together on TV – from being roommates & classmates at Harvard University to being lifelong sisters. Antoinette Oakley and Lisa Fairfax are law professors and Nina Simmons is a senior counsel. Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson thanked them by name in her acceptance speech on the White House lawn.
They spoke with so much dignity and joy about their sisterhood, and yet also firmly and directly about the challenges and prejudices that all of them as women, and being black, had to fight against and overcome. Over the course of more than three decades, they have supported one another personally and professionally through success and setbacks. As I was watching the video, it was clear to me how much this sisterhood has meant to them. Rarely are we blessed to describe a relationship, event or concept in such [exclusively] powerful and meaningfully positive terms.
For them, sisterhood brought joy and belonging. It sustained them through triumph and adversity. It created space for them and the bonds that bind them are actually setting them free – to share & care; to celebrate; to withstand; to be.
If you have about 11 minutes, watch the video of their sisterhood here. Male or female, you will feel the tears of joy well up inside.