An Evening with Sandra Cisneros

Tonight I sat among several hundred Latinos, Chicanos, Hispanics of every designation, African-Americans and us just plain white folks to listen to Sandra Cisneros, who came to Kansas City to celebrate the 25th year of The House on Mango Street, her award-winning book that began her professional writing career. Here's what I learned:

1. She has a great heart.
2. Family is important to her, but independence and human rights are even more important. (She defined feminism as respect for equality and human rights for ALL, including gays, children, women, etc.)
3. To prepare for her writing day, she meditates and asks the universe for two things: (1) humility (because the ego gets in the way) and (2) courage, especially the courage to listen for and receive guidance from her highest self, her truest self.

She went on to describe her life as a writer. She listed several pieces of advice on "how to become a writer" and most were pretty typical, but some were surprising. She advised would-be writers to defer marriage and defer parenthood, but not to defer getting a good education to be employable - to have a "day job" while honing writing skills. She also said, "you need to become a human being. Ask for teachers to come and guide you, and they will appear."

If I were Latino, I would be very proud that she represented my ethnicity. I'm not Latino, but I AM a woman, and I felt proud that she represented my gender so well, insisting that we need to in her very words "be in control of our fertility and our sexuality" so that we don't live a life determined by biological drives. I thought "what courage it takes to speak to one's audience in those terms" knowing that many will disagree with that. Many will insist, still, that a woman's first duty is not to herself but to her reproductive role, and that is even more true of women of most non-white ethnic persuasions.

Sandra Cisneros inspired me both as a writer and as a woman. And, perhaps most of all, as a human being, here to do good, she says, in whatever small ways we can (she "collects" stray dogs, has them neutered and pays for their shots).

Rituals

I was reminded of the timelessness of rituals this week when I watched a group of Tibetan monks ritually create a sand mandala, then "de-create" it. All according to instructions from the Buddha himself, passed down through unbroken lineages. In typical American fashion, I had sandwiched in this ritual between other "errands" for the day. As the monks' ceremony went on, I realized I wouldn't make my previous schedule.

I had a clear choice: to leave and cram in everything I "needed" to do, or to stay and sink into the rhythm of this ancient ritual. Never have I been so aware of how rapidly time has shifted for western civilization. And of how great a toll it takes. I stayed.

Once I made the choice to be there, I allowed myself to enter fully those rhythms from another time. I saw how easy it was for them to sweep up the contents of an entire week's work and calmly put the contents in bags to distribute "sand blessings" to those who watched. Nothing was lost, only reconfigured. Nothing destroyed, only changed. And so it will be with our era too.