Survival Tools for Forgotten Women - 2: Mirror-Mirror

Part 2: Mirror-Mirror

Look closely now, don’t blink or you’ll miss her… A quick swish, swish. Pretty fabric… What a lovely outfit, a little out of place here, though, but still pretty… Oh, those braids, really intricate, I wonder how long it took to plant? sew? glue on… But wait, here comes another woman, obviously from some exotic, far-away place too, although dressed in jeans. You can always tell. It’s something about the gait, the carriage. No accent, though. Hmm, not so sure…

Anyway, looking at her, you can just see images of her world flashing through your mind - so distant, so far-removed from yours, perhaps a different worldview, another belief system that surely has some effect on the fashion statement, the hairstyle, the demeanor emanating from the gait…

Perhaps where she was raised, people don’t stress over their next birthday, they’re thankful to be alive right now. Obviously, not too many people live on a budget over there: they get what they need from wherever, as and when it’s available to them. And the doctor’s? Please, get real. That’s a luxury reserved for the rich and powerful and connected; let alone insurance, what is that?

So where’s the similarity between you and her? None. Case closed. Useless ride.

For starters, okay, so you are considered a “minority” (whatever that means) where you now live, although you feel you have assimilated well into the surrounding foliage. People can’t tell from looking at you and listening to you that you were born in one of those exotic places. It seems so far-removed from who you are today. It’s not as if you deliberately try to “pass” or anything like that, it just never comes up anymore as the years go by.

The most important of all the differences between you and her, this other woman with a subservient attitude to everything out there, is most definitely that attitude which you don’t have, nor intend to adopt anytime soon. And back there, those who aren’t subservient are radical, political icons craving martyrdom (again, The News). This, you most definitely aren’t. Yours is a different breed. And so you still don’t see yourself in her.

Welcome to the club of The Forgotten. Kick off those heels, grab a glass of something from the fridge, and get ready to read on. And while you’re at it, grab these tools on your way to the couch, you’re going to need them: pillow, flashlight/torch, scalpel, broom, wheelbarrow, trashcan, scale, bulldozer, boot, key, remote control, goblet, tape measure, rope.

- To be continued

Related Articles:

• Part 1 - Survival Tools for Forgotten Women
• Part 2 - Mirror-Mirror
• Part 3 - Pillow for Protection