Being Human

' "What," men have asked distractedly from the beginning of time, "what on earth do women want?" I do not know that women, as women, want anything in particular, but as human beings they want, my good men, exactly what you want yourselves: interesting occupation, reasonable freedom for their pleasures, and a sufficient emotional outlet. What form the occupation, the pleasures and the emotion may take, depends entirely upon the individual. You know that this is so with yourselves - why will you not believe that it is so with us...

"Accepted as a human being!" - yes; not as an inferior class and not, I beg and pray all feminists, as a superior class - not in fact, as a class at all, except in a useful context...'

- from the essay "Are Women Human?" in "Unpopular Opinions" by Dorothy L. Sayers

Inspired in large part by the excellent essay I have quoted above, I wrote a poem yesterday... Well, it was supposed to be one poem, but rather interestingly mutated into two of them! :D I wrote the non-rhyming one first, then found a rhyming version coming to mind...

I guess the first version is more serious and the second more light hearted. :) Also, the chiastic structure is more important and comes out more strongly in the first one. They're like non-identical twins: they started out as one 'egg', but they've grown apart since then! :D

Anyway, without more ado:

BEING HUMAN (1)

My purpose is not to please a man
My purpose is not to keep a house
My purpose is not career motherhood
My purpose is not a successful career

I have no wish to manipulate
I have no wish to dominate
I have no wish to lose myself in a family
I have no wish to lose myself in a job

I am not a seductive temptress
I am not a domestic angel
I am not a hardened superwoman
I am not a baby factory

I am a human being

I am a complex individual
I am interested in diverse and disparate things
I am strong in some areas, weaker in others
I am sometimes right and sometimes wrong

I want to live a fulfilling life
I want to complete what God calls me to do
I want to do what I can do well
I want the freedom to be myself

My purpose is to love and please God
My purpose is to enjoy His love and embody it
My purpose is to give to the world what only I can give
My purpose is to become the best version of myself

© Ruth Fanshaw 2010
Composed 20th December 2010

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BEING HUMAN (2)

I don't exist to please a man,
Wield cleaning cloth and frying pan,
Nor worship kids or a career –
These things are not why I am here!

I don't want to manipulate,
Nor master, rule or dominate.
I do not want to lose myself,
In family or in seeking wealth.

I am no seductive temptress,
Nor angelic household empress;
No machine promotion-taker
Nor a patent baby-maker!

I'm a human, that is all;
With my own life, and my own Call.

I am a complex mix of things:
Of interests, traits and ponderings.
I'm sometimes weak and sometimes strong;
I'm sometimes right and sometimes wrong.

I want fulfilment, just like you:
To do what God wants me to do.
To use my skills and use them well -
The freedom just to be myself!

My purpose is to please my Lord:
To be myself – complete, restored!
To give what only I can give
And show His love by how I live.

© Ruth Fanshaw 2010
Composed 20th December 2010

I hope it will be understood that I am not suggesting that marriage, kids and careers are in themselves bad things! The problem only comes when people (of either gender) imagine that any of these things are their raison d'être.

For myself, I would not rule out marriage if a suitable candidate should apply. :D (There is no such individual in my metaphorical waiting room.) I would like to be a mother, and I would like to be respected in my field and be financially independent. But if I ever get to the point where the person God created me to be gets buried or lost in any of these things... well, I'll just have to get out these poems and remind myself! :D

The Great Adventure!

Ok, so to be honest, I've really been struggling for the last few days; and I didn't want to post about it here because I really wanted this blog to encourage people...

Anyway, I was really down today, despite all my best efforts to the contrary - and then I found this song 'by accident' while looking for something else...

I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of the poem I wrote a few days ago (see post "A Knight's Tale"). It even contains the phrase "the ride of your life" - which I didn't put in the poem but had been thinking as I read it through afterwards. Clearly Mr Chapman is thinking more cowboys than knights in armour... but that's a minor detail! :D

This has really lifted my spirits again and made me feel quite positive and upbeat about 'riding on' with Jesus again. It's like I said - God always sends me something to lift me out of the black moments. I just have to keep giving the whole sorry mess to Him and let Him sort it out. He is faithful, and He does have all my days in His hands.

I am glad of the reminder that He doesn't just lead me, he also 'rides' with me. And He can see the way ahead when I can't see how to take a single step forward. I just have to take His hand, trust that He knows best, and walk on with Him. Or ride! :')
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A Knight's Tale

Once I built a Castle.
My steed was swift,
And my Sword was bright.
I rode to Adventure and Battle;
I rode for Honour and Valour;
I rode for the Joy of One who called me…

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It has been a long ride…

I have seen many Battles and many Adventures;
And I have met many bandits and wild beasts.
Some have robbed me, and some wounded me;
My Sword has been notched,
And my Castle broken…

But always I have honed the blade and rebuilt;
I have bound up my wounds and ridden onwards,
Scarred but not consumed…

The One who called me led me on;
And in time, I came to a Valley of Peace.
I rested by the still waters, and was content.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I met a fellow knight.
A white knight with a good heart.
I admired his courage and his gentleness.
I admired his strength in the One who called us.
It seemed that we would ride together…

We would share our Adventures;
We would face our Battles side by side.
We would build our Castle,
Shining and bright and set upon a hill…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

But the knight was… of many colours;
And he has burnt my Castle.

The splendour of Carmel and Sharon have been taken from me,
And I have met lions in the Way…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I step away from the smouldering ruins.
I set my face to the Sunrise.
For the One who called me calls still…

He steadies my weak knees;
He lifts my feeble hands.
His strength fills my fearful heart, for He comes to save me.

He is the River in my desert;
The parched land will bloom again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I will take up my Sword once more,
And don my armour.
I will still ride for Honour and Valour.
I will be the White Knight.

I will ride again to Adventure and Battle;
Faith is my shield and Joy is my steed.
For the One who calls me is Truth,
And He sets me free from the ruined castle.

He will build my Castle again;
The foundations shall be of sapphires,
And the pinnacles of rubies.
I will enter Zion with singing;
Gladness and Joy will overtake me,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am the Castle,
Lashed by storms yet comforted;
Anyone who attacks will surrender to me.

I am the Sword,
Forged from disaster to be fit for my work;
No other weapon will prevail against me.

I become the White Knight.

He my Master Builder;
He is my Blacksmith and Hammer and Fire;
He is my Armour and Honour and Valour;
He is my Comfort and my Vindication.

He calls…

And I will follow.

© Ruth Fanshaw 2010
(Composed Saturday 10th July 2010)

**NOTE: I do not own the pictures in this post

My "Invictus"

There's a famous poem called 'Invictus' by a guy called William Ernest Henley... except he didn't give it the title himself, some other guy did when he put it in an anthology... but anyway!

INVICTUS
by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


Lot's of good, stirring stuff there... but I think my version of it would go something like this:

INVICTUS
by William Ernest Henley (and little me!)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank the God who lives in me
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Lies one of Joy that will not fade,
And so the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
For Christ has made me clean and whole,
He is the Master of my fate:
He is the Captain of my soul.


I know with absolute certainty that it is Jesus and only Jesus who makes my soul unconquerable. I know just where I would be without Him, and it ain't pretty. :S I'm thinking Romans 8 here...

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:37-39; emphasis mine).

It is Jesus who gives me the strength to take the crap that life is throwing at me right now. And so far, I have not 'winced or cried aloud' - at least in public! :D

It is the joy of the future with Jesus that gives me the strength to deal with the 'wrath and tears' right now. Well, maybe not wrath at the moment - so that's something good right away! :D

I'm thinking Philippians 3:13b-14: "...but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." Also Romans 8:18: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." And how about Rev. 21:4? "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

Those who put their faith in Jesus can have absolute assurance that all this stuff will be theirs - not because of us, but because of HIM. And I know that my life and ultimate fate are in His hands, and are therefore perfectly safe.

A couple of bits of songs come to mind here:

"No guilt in life, no fear in death:
This is the power of Christ in me!
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny!
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand.
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I stand."

(From 'In Christ Alone' by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.)

And also... well, pretty much all of 'I Will Set My Face' by Godfrey Birtill, but especially the bit that goes:

"Creator, Defender,
My Maker, Instructor, Commander,
My Warrior, My Shelter,
My Helper, My Leader,
My Jesus, My Saviour,
My wonderful God!"

Blimey, I've gone on a bit! :D Hope this turns out to be useful to somebody some time... :)
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