Mom's Memories

I love reading Lydia's memories and thoughts about this book series!

Lydia has always been a voracious reader, and sometimes she was a voracious writer as well. I have a compilation of her poetry from her early days when she first learned to write, through high school and college. But that story is for another day ...

Lydia is my personal librarian. She has always suggested books to me, and 95% of the time she is right on the mark and I love the books she suggests. I almost never read fiction that she has not suggested, and I almost always read what she has suggested. Who knows whether she has secretly formed my current personal philosophy and theology through her sneaky suggestions???

She hit a winner with the Earth's Children series. I loved it, I still love it, and I continue to wait impatiently for the final book in the series. Which I have heard might be released in 2 books. It is being written, and has been being written for a few years now ... I continue to wait ... there is a link on my blog to the site, so I can check on its status now and then.

I will try to remember my reactions to each of the topics that Lydia blogged on:

1. "... get into trouble for having subversive reading material that promoted a secular, unbiblical view of sex, religion, relationships, and the role of women in society."

By the time Lydia was reading the first book, I was beginning to notice my feminist leanings. I had been in college for a few years, had run into problems with the conservative theology about women being in a secondary position in the home and church, and had accepted the idea of female leadership in the church. So her fears about getting in trouble were a reflection of my feelings from the 1980s, when I restricted many of her toys and books. Anybody remember "Turmoil in the Toy-box"? I had bought it completely in Lydia's early years.

2. "One reason why I thought Mom would be uncomfortable with this series was due to the female deity that the characters in the series worshiped."

This one was a little tougher for me in the 1990s. I had by then grown to believe that God has no gender, and that his maleness in the Biblical pronouns was simply a way for humanity to somehow understand him within our limited minds. However, I was not ready to think too deeply about a female deity. I don't remember talking with Lydia about this though. As I read the books, I reasoned that first of all this is fiction, so I shouldn't take it too seriously. Secondly, I was able to reason that the early humans on this earth would have had very limited understanding of God as we know him today, so they were doing the best they could with what they had, and God has grace for that. Romans 1, I believe, is the passage that talks about how even those who do not know God can find him in the creation, and we are responsible only for what we know.

So I could accept the female deity, thinking of it as a precursor to the full knowledge of God that was to come about 25,000 years later ...

3. "But, if Ayla had to fall in love, at least she was able to carve out her own life as an individual first."

This part didn't bother me at all. I liked Ayla's spunk. and independence. and resourcefulness. and toughness. and questioning of authority. probably because I share some of those traits, and they have put me in tough spots sometimes in my younger years! I'm learning to moderate those things with a softer, more diplomatic way.

4. "While I definitely didn't want to live in a world without grocery stores (or other people), I was jealous of Ayla's ability to carve a life out for herself that did not rely upon gender to determine what she was allowed to do."

I remember sometimes talking about submission with Lydia. I was trying to make the scriptures about submission fit in with modern life. So there were some mental gymnastics. I believed marriage is partnership. I also believed that if a decision could not be made together, the husband should just make it and things would work out. I believed that women were full fledged adult humans, complete with or without a man. I also believed that women were excellent helpers for their husbands. like I said, mental gymnastics.

Since that time, I have found peace in believing that many parts of the Bible are cultural. Not bad, but not as prescriptive for us today as we had thought at one time. When a person is not taught to read or to function outside the home, as women were raised 2000 years ago, they are subordinate to an educated and usually older husband, and they do need them to survive well in society. But that is no longer our world.

Anyway, my jealousy of Ayla had (and still has) to do with her freedom. She was as self employed as they come. She set the schedule and tone of each day. She was by no means lazy, and she also did not have an easy life. But she was her own boss. Money did not exist in her world. This theme of a world without money still resonates with me more than anything else in this series. Sometimes Drew talks about what a world would be like without money in today's time, and he always captures my attention with these ideas.

5. "Had Mom read them first, I highly doubt she would have allowed me to read them at that age. I'm not even sure if she would have continued to read them past the first or second book."

I can't remember Lydia's age, but I think she was in junior high or so at the time. I don't know if I would have let her read them if I had known, but I do know that when I read the books later I did not regret that she had read them. In fact, most of the sexual content of this series is respectful and sensitive to both men and women. I was particularly intrigued by the lack of information that these early humans had about how a baby is made. They did not connect the baby to the man at all. They viewed the baby as a product of the woman's body, when the goddess decided to bless her with a baby. There were times when an infertile man was the cause of no baby in the relationship, but the people did not recognize this. Instead it served to strengthen their belief that the man and sex had nothing to do with procreation, as they had examples of sexually active couples who did not procreate.

This made me wonder what beliefs we hold today, with what we consider proof, that are completely wrong.

I actually felt that the people in these books had a holy view of sex, in the way that they prepared for a young person's first sexual encounter. It seemed so much more meaningful than the way we modern people handle it. We let kids experiment in the back seat of a car, while the people of this book planned for and celebrated a person's first sexual experience. I wasn't sure about the idea that an older experienced person of the opposite gender did the introducing to the virgin, without becoming their life partner, but I did like the sensitivity of their practices.

I don't think I ever discussed this with Lydia, nor anyone else. These were quite subversive thoughts for a pastor's wife. But now that the pastor has moved on to other things, I can tell you all about my thoughts. :D

I continue to await the final book. I have a mental picture of the final scene in the last book, even though it's been several years since I read it. Ayla is holding her baby, is married to her lover, is growing in favor with her community, and an older woman is asking her to become the spiritual leader of the group. Ayla is looking at her baby, thinking aloud about what to do, and how this will impact her baby and her husband, and the book ends with the questions remaining.

Just as those same questions remain for many working wives and mothers today, in 2010.