The Snow is Blue and Other Truths
The Dangers Of Mice and Hysterical Women
Recently, I’ve been studying the medical atrocities inflicted upon women over the past several hundred years and examining the gross negligence of our current medical care for women. I will never write a dissertation on this, but as a woman on earth whose focus is on end-of-life care, I am also interested in care for the living so that dying may be gentler when it comes. They are often intertwined in the sense that the kind of care you receive when you are dying will certainly be impacted by the way you lived — your community, friends and family, economic status, race, gender — all of these intricacies will play a role. Of course, in terms of an “unexpected death” such as a sudden accident, these factors will be less relevant and instead will show themselves in the kind of post-mortem care your body receives. In that instance, again, your community, friends and family, economic status, race, and gender will all come into play.
Since the time of your death is unexpected but it will certainly come, there is only one thing you can rely upon. Only one. Your mind and how you have treated it, explored with it, tamed it, stretched it, surrendered to it, will be the only thing you can take with you into your dying moments and possibly beyond.
This begs the question, how are you engaged with your own mind? Where do you allow it to wander? How do you retract it? How do you focus? What do you know? What do you think you know? What is there that you think you know, that deep down you know you do not know? How many truths can there be when contemplating perspectives? From whose perspective and at what time? Does it shift depending on whose perspective it is and the timing of it?
I can say to you, the snow is blue. You can say, no, the snow is white. I can say, no, I am looking at the snow in my yard, right now, and it is blue. You can say, I am looking at the snow in my yard, right now, and it is white.
Both of these can be true. Depending on your location and the time of day or evening or night, the snow will change the color that we see. Everyone knows snow is white. Also, at twilight, the snow can be as blue as a bluejay’s wing. If a dog pees on a patch of white snow, well, don’t eat yellow snow.
Since forever, we have killed each other over One Truth. One God. One race. It has never proven to be a healing method of understanding each other or our planet. Capitalizing on this One Truth has come in many forms that always include power — sometimes land, sometimes money. Or, as we currently see on a day to day basis, simply, “being right.” The internet will prove to you time and time again that YOU ARE RIGHT. This is the RIGHT VIEW. You are winning with your viewpoint because everyone like you also has this viewpoint and this is the best way. The ONLY way. If you are right, that means the other is wrong. You have the Truth, the other does not. Not only that, but you can take it one step further in that you have the Truth and the other is a Lie. You are the all-knowing golden child because you spread truth and the others spread lies. You are healing the earth with your truth, the others are killing the earth with their lies. And the algorithms laugh all the while.
Women have been horrifically and violently medically experimented on for hundreds of years. Their voices have been considered hysterical, worthless and ignorant — even when wishing to report on the pains in their own bodies the husband was consulted by the doctor instead since the woman’s report could not be trusted. White women, black women, indigenous women, poor “loose” women, have all been torn apart, had their clitoris’ burned off or cut out, and refused any kind of education about their own bodies. Men held all of the knowledge (which was often gravely wrong) and refused to share anything with them. Women have been treated as animals. These bodies were not gently treated and they died horrible deaths at the hands of men who knew and pursued their Truth.
Today, it is well documented that male mice are grossly preferred to female mice when studying all medicines, medications, surgeries and vaccines. Why? Because we have never recovered from the idea that the female body with all of its unusualties (when comparing it to the man — the “standard” body) is too complex to study. Women and their uterus’ are a downright mystery. The menstrual cycle takes into consideration too many “additional” factors that can disrupt the progress of getting the meds on the market. When female mice are used (in well under 20% of all laboratory studies) they are researched according to the male standard. Again, not taking into any consideration the parts of the mouse that are not male. So, if some female mice are studied, but only by the male standard, then what percentage of the wholeness of the female mice are studied? That could make us dizzy, but a result we can follow, is that many drugs for women simply do not work as well or not at all, or worse — they cause damage.
This should be of utmost concern to all of us who have ever taken a medicine, medication, surgery procedure or vaccine! And yet, some of you will get stuck in just one part of this entire blog piece. You’ll miss the entire point because you are looking for your One Truth. The Truth that you Stand By. You’ll scan for the disconnect — the part where I am wrong. Or, you’ll scan for the connection, the part where you think I am right. Many of you who got this far have made up a new opinion about me or confirmed a former one, without simply saying, “Oh, that’s her truth right now. Maybe I should look some of these things up for myself. Maybe there are more truths out there.” You’ll miss the parts in this piece about race, maybe even the parts about gender! Perhaps you’ll only be concerned with lab studies being done on innocent mice. (As a vegan/vegetarian — I am concerned about that too.)
Some of you will say there’s a difference because calling snow blue is not dangerous, but declaring that wearing the wrong mask — or no mask — could end up with people dead. But the truth changed not long ago with masks and the pandemic. Maybe you recall. The slamming and shaming of mask-wearers was rampant at the very beginning in the pandemic in the US. The simple surgical masks that we all wear every single day now, were once laughed at on sitcoms, by celebrities and surgeons and many of my friends said, “it’s pointless to wear this mask because no one will take it off correctly — it will do nothing. It will offer no protection.” (Even Fauci said it was pointless on 60 minutes! See link above.) And, think back — this was not just Trump supporters. People laughed at the Chinese and those in other countries who were wearing masks. The struggle went on with cloth masks verses, surgical masks, verses N-95s verses KN-95s. The truth changed. It continues to change. (Have you ever lost a friend because of a difference in Truth? This pandemic has caused a whopper of a defriending storm.) And, the Truth was never the same for everyone to begin with. Masks for those that are hearing challenged and rely on reading lips — it was never good for them. Those that are neurodiverse — the masks were never right for them. The truth changes depending on circumstances, time, perspective, and as studies evolve. Nothing is stationary in science — that is the nature of science. To get stuck in One Truth makes you a terribly stupid scientist.
I bet if you think about it, you can find more examples. Like, at one time, male doctors believed that the cure for what we now know as menstrual cramps was marrying the child off and that regular sexual intercourse was the one and only cure. It was documented in journals that if the uterus was not busy being “productive” either being sexually penetrated by the husband or growing a baby that it would wreak havoc in the woman’s body and actually “wander” around. Like an animal inside an animal. Now, what was dangerous about that and from whose perspective? The doctor thought it was dangerous for the young woman if she did not get married in a hurry. The young woman, not able to trust her own feelings and thoughts, did as the doctor said so that she did not die. Everyone who mattered agreed that sexual penetration and pregnancy was the best course of action to keep the woman out of danger. Or, perhaps pulling out the ovaries (with a bit of alcohol to ease her nerves) was the right thing to do.
You might say, medicine has come such a long way! But, has it? For whom? Ask around. The clitoris was only fully recognized as the strapping and vibrant 4 inch long nerve that it is around 2008. Turns out, its length, can cheerfully rival the all-glorious penis! It’s not just a tiny nub that causes a woman to go blind or die if she were to “bother” it herself. That’s an old Truth. That’s so 1950’s. Or, wait… there are still articles coming out on that?
The statue of Marion Sims in Central Park in New York was taken down only in 2018 — Sims, you may have known as the “father of gynecology” was the white man who brutally tortured enslaved black women in an effort to promote his medical expertise. Is this what we have to be thankful for as women these days? Removing this ass-wipe’s statue? Is getting 50% of the mice studied to be female with all of their glorious parts and systems taken into consideration something so futuristic and wild? We sent white men to the moon in a rocket in 1969 but we can’t get an equal gender mouse distribution into laboratories on planet earth? There’s a good reason, I’m sure. Maybe there’s a mouse shortage…
When I die, I’ll leave behind my vagina, uterus and ovaries. They will all remain in my corpse and decompose. My mind will go with me as far as it can go. That’s okay. Because tonight the snow is blue. I can capture it, touch it, hold it in my hand, and it even melts into a blue liquid. When I’m actively dying, my mind may wonder what the other side of death looks like. I will approach it openly with curiosity, knowing that just as I see no One Truth here in this realm, there is no One Truth in that realm. (If they are even two different things.) For Truth implies there is a Non-Truth and that is a human concept- one that has caused lots of pain. Besides, I’m okay with not knowing everything.
