Emotions: Anger

Last week I had a POST about Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee.  Yesterday she contributed to The Daily Beast on the Liberian elections which spawned violence and made Leymah worried that her country was once again teetered on the edge of civil war.  She said:  

I called my friend Abby Disney, whose film Pray the Devil Back to Hell first showed the world how the women of Liberia had come together in our country’s darkest days to demand an end to the war. She, too, told me not to give up. I cried some more. I prayed. I knew I had to continue doing what I do best: building peace. I couldn’t allow hate and anger to destroy what my sisters and I worked so hard for. I couldn’t allow the bitterness that swelled in my throat every time I thought about the previous day’s violence to immobilize me. I had to get a few of my sisters to work with me and engage very angry men from all sides of the conflict.  The Daily Beast Nov. 10, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
at her inauguration in Monrovia

A leader like Gbowee knows that it is helpful to leave us with a quote that we can take away and which we may integrate into our thoughts more and more  each day.  In yesterday's article she gave us:

“Anger is like water:
The shape it takes comes from
the container you put it in.”

Gbowee is a deeply religious and spiritually grounded person.  I am not religious, except perhaps about not being religious.  But, she is my heroine.  Her quote recognizes that we cannot help which emotion we feel in relation to a stimulus but that we choose what action we take in reaction to it. She organized women of different faiths and different traditions into a movement for peace in the same spirit of peace that  Gandhi did. And, this week she refused to give up and she refused to allow her anger to overcome her or to allow anger and mendacity to overcome the fragile peace her country has so perilously and recently achieved.  Through meetings with the opposition leaders she helped renegotiate the armistice and the first female President of Liberia, and co-laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was re-elected.

Gbowee is the author (with  Carol Mithers) of Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Beast Books (September 13, 2011)
• Kindle Edition: 881 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

(Clicking on the title above will take you to Amazon.com where you may choose to purchase this book through my Amazon Affiliate status)

Yemeni human rights activist and journalist, Tawakkul Karman, shared the prize with Sirleaf and Gbowee. I don't know much about her so I am planning to change that and hope to let you know about her in the near future.

FMI: Africa The Good News 
http://www.africagoodnews.com/governance/leadership/2755-african-women-win-nobel-prize.html

Related articles

• Sirleaf won the second term in president election of Liberia Monrovia - eTaiwan News (taiwannews.com.tw)
• Building Peace in a Deeply Divided Liberia (thedailybeast.com)
• Amazing Woman: Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Laureate (wingedeffigy.blogspot.com)
• Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel Peace Prize, and Stephen Colbert (womenintheology.org)

Staying at the top today too:Amazing Woman: Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Laureate

Image via Wikipedia

My BFF had never heard of Gbowee and she is current event savvy.  So I am leaving this up another day. More people need to know about this woman.  She is a role model for women of every age, race, creed, or country.

To end the civil war in Liberia, Leymah Gbowee organized a sex strike. Simply stated the women did not put out until the civil war ended. As simple as it sounds, and without any research on my part, that was exceedingly courageous. Starting with Biblical legend, (Adam's first wife, Lilith was kicked out for not having sex with Adam) and until quite recently in history women's primary purpose was service of all types to her husband with direct penalty for failure. If a woman was not married she was often reduced to all but sexual servitude to the highest ranking male in her family or "took the veil." And that wasn't just Africa or Asia or other non-western culture.
I think the women of Liberia risked more than not getting their own jollies by refusing men theirs. They risked beatings, or marital rape, or even worse—not because they were African, but because in many places and in many lives it is still accepted that women are lesser and should be servile.
Now this very brave woman has won a Nobel Peace Prize, not for some grand diplomatic act or treaty but by affecting the lives of millions by starting at home.
I am not a Christian but recall a hymn we sung when I was taken to church: "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."  I used to think that meant I had to be peaceful myself, but now I think it has an entirely different meaning depending on circumstances—one uses what means one has to find peace not just for one's self but for a greater good. I am certain a great many Liberian  were less than peaceful during the strike; it took courage to do what these women did. And, guys, if you are reading this, no, it's not like what you are always complaining about in comedy routines.

Trailer for "Pray The Devil Back to Hell"

From the Daily Beast October 7, 2011

From the Colbert Report—I hope someone warned her about the nature of the program.

The Colbert Report
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Peace Activist Leymah Gbowee gives a powerful speech at the 5th Annual Living Legends Awards For Service to Humanity at the Emmanuel-Brinklow Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Ashton, Maryland. Taped by Emmanuel-Brinklow Volunteers. Encoded by SAV.

Related articles

• Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee: Liberia is progressing, but still divided (csmonitor.com)
• Nobel Peace Prize Winner: New Media Empowers Women (sandyparis.wordpress.com)
• Nobel Peace Prize Honors for Leymah Gbowee (eyeonbooks.com)