Vachon Imagined

When God’s voice is reserved for men, that is not life speaking.

That is men speaking.

And perhaps the women who support the idea as well.

Good for them.

I disagree.

Life moves through a caterpillar, a leaf, a dog, an atom, and—brace yourself—a woman.

Yes, a woman.

The notion that men lead and women follow is meant to be challenged, not because of theory or ideology, but because of evidence. We see it every day. Women raising families because they were given no choice. Women leading because they chose to. Women building, creating, teaching, governing, nurturing, healing, and carrying burdens that entire communities depend upon.

Life itself does not appear concerned with our hierarchies.

It moves where it moves.

I cannot name it any more completely than you can. Nor can I declare who is permitted to speak for it and who is not.

That certainty feels old to me.

Perhaps all certainty eventually becomes old.

But I do not feel compelled to change it, argue against it, or defeat it. Every structure eventually gives way. Every institution, every doctrine, every law, every statue that appears permanent eventually cracks, falls, or is replaced.

Nothing ever leaves entirely because the possibilities were already here.

Before language.

Before religion.

Before philosophy.

Before we developed words to explain origins, destiny, abundance, lack, God, or ourselves.

Everything existed as possibility.

And all possibility seems to emerge from the same silence to which it returns.

It is only through judgment, fear, and certainty that people proclaim permanent authority. Yet history has shown us that authority changes hands, laws are rewritten, monuments crumble, and convictions that once appeared eternal become relics.

What remains is silence.

Not the silence of absence.

The silence before the storm.

The silence after the storm.

The silence vast enough to contain every voice, every belief, every creature, every atom, every woman, every man.

Everything.

And perhaps that silence is wiser than all of us.