COLUMN FROM MARGUERITE KEARNS

I started with evaluating my emphasis on my feet. They are neglected in general, says my exercise teacher. And reluctantly I admitted that the category of my mind and that of spirit are given more emphasis than my body. Yikes. This is something I have to correct. That’s why I registered for classes. And the insights poured into my awareness.

My feet are part of my body. This has received the least attention. The goal of a storyteller involves the looseness and joy of the body. It isn’t the sole result of intention for me at the present time. I have plenty of intention. Consult my notebooks with documents of intention. I can go up to two years before noticing that this works, but only up to a point.

TELLING STORIES AS IF I MUST RUSH TO THE MIND AND SPIRIT IN SUFFRAGE ADVOCACY

SLOW DOWN.

When I signed up as needing a mentor, it was with the idea that a mentor could help me with things I could not control in my present condition. I found out very quickly that a mentor could help me only to a point.

My own work is as important as a so-called mentor with lots of terrific public relations copy.

It has taken a while, but there is no magic bullet in bringing about a result. So I followed the advice of a book in my collection that emphasized the importance of a strong backbone and love. That’s when I realized that a mentor who has helped others will not necessarily help me unless I am also working on myself, as well as a manuscript.

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF TIMING, SUFFRAGE RESEARCH, AND TIMING

I realized that timing, research into the gender history of struggle was difficult to achieve in a social history of a nonviolent movement. I realized that if I equally honored body, mind, and spirit, that I had to give attention and balance to all three areas.

If there were unbalanced areas, it wasn’t to conclude that I was a failure, but an individual experiencing an unbalance. Thus, my registration in body awareness classes. I have “mind” and “spirit” more developed as categories.

Suffrage Wagon News Channel has been publishing since 2009.