If I Could Convince You of Only One Thing: Essays

IF I COULD CONVINCE YOU OF ONLY ONE THING

essays

Zelda Leah Gatuskin

Copyright 2018 Zelda Leah Gatuskin

published by

AMADOR PUBLISHERS

SMASHWORDS EDITION

ISBN: 978-0-938513-62-9

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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cover art by Zelda Leah Gatuskin

It is not necessary that we believe in each other's beliefs,

so long as we believe in each other. --zlg

Previous publication credits

The Introduction, Art and Religion and Science and Reason, was originally presented as a lecture for the American Humanist Association in 2010. The essay Bill Baird, My Hero and My Friend was published under the title Bill Baird: Wounded Warrior Battles On in the Winter 2012 issue of Free Mind, a publication of the American Humanist Association. The essays in Parts 1 and 3 were originally published in the Humanist Society of New Mexico Newsletter. The essays in Parts 2 and 4 were originally published on Zelda Gatuskin’s blog, The Tree. Essays have been edited for inclusion in this collection.

Acknowledgments

My sincere thanks to Luke Moy for his invaluable assistance in preparing the Art and Religion and Science and Reason lecture for publication, and for his astute editorial review overall.

CONTENTS

About This Collection

Introduction: Art and Religion and Science and Reason

Part 1. Our Best Selves

New Year's Resolution

Just Say Yes

Am Honored to Inscribe

Dogs and Cats

Virtue and Honor

Believe It or Not

It's Time to Get Serious About the UDHR

Can't We Just Evolve Already?

Nature Is Inescapable

EHFAR

Save Us from the Soul-Savers

Changing Cottonwood Against Cloudless Sky

Part 2. Let's Talk About Shoulders

Repeat After Me: ERA

Let's Talk About Shoulders

Why War on Women Is a Misnomer

Lrch Frwrd

Mirror Mirror

We're All Babies Now

Breaking Down by Degrees, Holiday Mood Swings, & the Zombie Shopper Apocalypse

Gun Sex

Women Must Take the Lead in Ending Gun Violence

Bill Baird, My Hero and My Friend

Where Are the Voices for the ERA?

Wake Up to Your Media Landscape

Still Stewing About Makers

If I Could Convince You of Only One Thing, It Would Be This: Value Yourself

Part 3. A Kind of Hope

Let's Keep Going

Drawin' for Darwin

Reality Check

The Circle Way

Conflict of Interest

The Compassion Gap

A Kind of Hope

Come as You Are

Metaphors Work for Me

Renaissance 2.1

The Songs of Unseen Birds

Go Out and Be Awesome

Childhood

Prophets vs. Profits

Part 4. We All Deserve Better

I Wouldn't Want to Be a Guy

Oh, *Now* We're Worried About the Fourth Amendment

Born to Worry

On Women's Equality Day, Let's Recommit to Passing the ERA

Pro-Life Porn Show Comes to Albuquerque

Breaking Wind

Men Also Deserve Better

I'm Sorry I Feel this Way: A Few Thoughts for the Days of Atonement

Most Cynical Ad Campaigns of 2015

If You Kill the Dog, I'm Closing the Book

Taking Another Look at Daniel Deronda

Women of America, This Is What Those Good Ol' Boys Think of Us

Conclusion: A Philosophy for Everyone

Appendix: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Books by Zelda Leah Gatuskin

About This Collection

As an introduction to myself and the short and medium-length essays contained in the four parts of this collection, I have included a rather lengthy text. It is adapted from a talk I delivered to the Humanist Society of New Mexico in 2009, and then in expanded form at the 2010 National Conference of the American Humanist Association. (HSNM is a chapter of the AHA.) It marks the inception of all of the writing that follows; as well, it was a significant factor in my being recruited to leadership roles with both groups.

Art and Religion and Science and Reason begins with some background about my Jewish upbringing, my life as a creative artist, how I became a publisher, and my serendipitous path to humanism, the Humanist Society of New Mexico and the American Humanist Association. My central thesis is that the Fine Arts have been neglected in contemporary humanist thought and activism in favor of the Sciences. Probing for the cause of this Science-Art imbalance while I prepared my case, I hit a nerve that has yet to be quieted -- the realization that the chauvinism of Science over Art is of a piece with the overall, all-pervasive, chauvinism that marks Western society. With that clarifying idea, my feminist zeal was reawakened. Fortunately, the AHA's Feminist Caucus (now called the Feminist Humanist Alliance) was there to receive me.

Not long after that 2010 conference and my discovery of the AHA's feminist adjunct, I was nominated for president of the Humanist Society of New Mexico. Since that tends not to be a contested position, I was duly elected to a two-year term; then my other arm was twisted, and I was elected to a second term. One of my reasons for deciding to accept, twice, such a demanding task was this: In order to improve the status of women, we need more women in more leadership positions. That means that when an opportunity comes around for a woman to lead, she ought to accept. So, I practiced what I preached, and the experience gave me the courage to keep on preaching.

The essays of Parts 1 through 4 are chronological within each section, and the parts themselves are roughly sequential or overlapping. The writing spans the period from January 2011 to mid-September 2016.

During the four years of my HSNM presidency, I wrote a column every month for our Newsletter. Parts 1 and 3 contain a selection of those essays. They were written to inform and motivate our members, and to engage newcomers with a practical, positive example or explanation of humanist philosophy.

At this same time, I was also increasing my involvement with the AHA, leading to my stepping in to fill a Feminist Caucus co-chair position from mid-2012 through mid-2014. This resulted in my creating a blog titled The Tree for my feminist-humanist essays and related media analysis. I have gathered the most significant of these into Parts 2 and 4 of this collection.

I continued the blog series into 2016; but as the U.S. presidential election neared, I found myself unwilling to contribute more words to the avalanche of opinion and analysis coming from every quarter. I had repeatedly offered strong critiques of our popular culture, media and politics. On the subject of women's rights, I felt there was nothing more to say-- Except, maybe, I told you so, and no one wants to hear that.

Now, with the passage of time, I find that the writing is still relevant. The issues are certainly still close to my heart. In combining selections from my newsletter pieces with the blog posts, I notice that they are all spin-offs, one way or another, from my Art and Religion and Science and Reason presentation. In lending my voice to the feminist-humanist movement, I have continued to draw from my studies in visual art and media literacy to expose the underlying themes, motives and methods of our ubiquitous mass culture. My approach to the essays, as with the talk, has been that of an artist; my goal, to demonstrate how the Arts allow us to explore our complex and conflicted human nature -- and the necessity of doing so.

The new essay in this collection serves as my Conclusion. Whereas the title essay is an appeal for personal empowerment (If I Could Convince You of Only One Thing, It Would Be This: Value Yourself), the concluding essay, A Philosophy for Everyone, offers a practical, positive approach to getting along better as a society.

Finally, I have included as an Appendix the complete text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was a topic of one of my early humanist essays.

All of the opinions expressed in this book are my own and not offered on behalf of either the Humanist Society of New Mexico or the American Humanist Association. I am deeply grateful to both groups for valuing my voice and entrusting me with responsibilities that required me to be more organized in my thinking and direct in my communications. I was honored to work among many caring, accomplished and influential people, from bona-fide celebrities, to community movers and shakers, to an array of dedicated volunteers quietly contributing their skills and energy to bettering our world. I am deeply appreciative of everyone who encouraged, challenged, educated and inspired me along the way. I hope this collection will inspire in turn.

* * *

INTRODUCTION

A presentation to the National Conference of the American Humanist Association

June 5, 2010, San Jose, California

Art and Religion and Science and Reason

I am dedicating my lecture today to Harry Willson. Harry was my friend and mentor for twenty years. In 1989 he agreed to publish my first novel, The Time Dancer, and from that time forward I was effectively apprenticed to Harry. He taught me everything I know about publishing and much of what I know about writing. In 2006 we converted Amador Publishers, the press which Harry and his wife Adela Amador founded, into an LLC and I became co-owner and managing editor. The object was for me to effect a peaceful takeover of the company in order to keep our titles in print, provide an outlet for Harry's literary works, and let Harry and Adela retire.

Even before we came up with this plan, Harry had designated me as his literary executor. I remember the discussion well. I'm adding a codicil to my will, Harry told me, so that you will take charge of all my unpublished manuscripts. To which I replied, You can will me anything you want. But no dying! We had many good laughs about that over the years, especially while we were working on his book Myth and Mortality, and right up to the week before he died of cancer in March of this year.

Harry had been giving me little pushes toward the humanist community for a number of years. He'd ask me to come along to meetings with him when he spoke to our local Humanist Society, the Friendly Philosophers and other groups. I'd take care of selling books and get to meet his gang, which comprised many local activists, teachers and philosophers. When we reorganized the company, Harry convinced me that Amador Publishers should officially declare itself a humanist press. It fit with the mission Harry and Adela had stated from the beginning: dedicated to peace, equality, respect for all cultures and preservation of the biosphere. There was no question that the local humanist community was our audience, consistently supporting Amador Publishers over the years and welcoming Harry's thoughtful and challenging writings.

The funny thing was that although I felt in agreement with the philosophy Harry and his friends espoused, I had never fully subscribed to the mantle of humanism. Now I was going to run a humanist press. How was I going to pull that off?

Our local Humanist Society president got wind of our plans and suggested I personally join the AHA and HSNM, now that I was going to be at the helm of Amador. I sent in my dues and began receiving lots of literature about humanism. I started attending our monthly lecture meetings regularly, not just when Harry spoke. I was impressed by the presentations from our local activists and philosophers, and I was touched by the kindness and caring of these people, who took me into their fold and bolstered me during a time of sadness and upheaval. So, all of you of the humanist community are part of the gift that Harry willed me, and I'm deeply grateful and committed to carrying on our work.

My first task has been to articulate for myself what makes me a humanist, and how to frame that in the context of running a humanist press. It has not been so easy, and I have often felt contrary along the way. All those years that I tagged along with Harry to the HSNM meetings, why did I not join? I agreed with much of what I heard, was heartened by the depth and intelligence of the discussion, and enjoyed being in the company of other freethinkers. So I needed to figure out what was off-putting to me, and if I might have something constructive to offer to correct that, versus just staying away.

This talk is the result of that inquiry. It starts with Saturday mornings, which is when our chapter meetings are held -- because my first task was to take care of the knee-jerk stuff. Specifically, I have this ingrained resistance to popping out of bed on Saturday morning to attend meetings of any kind, and I bet some of you can guess why.

*

In childhood, Saturday mornings meant going to shul -- synagogue. Up until the age of nine, that entailed a rather long car ride to get to the more orthodox temple -- a perplexing proposition given that driving at all on the Sabbath was forbidden, like a variety of other things, some of which we did and some of which we didn't.

Like it or not, on Saturday mornings my sisters and I were roused from bed and put into uncomfortable clothes, and made to look nice and behave nicely and mingle with other kids like us, Jewish kids. Then we did it all again on Sunday morning for classes and activities which were not held on the Sabbath because of the proscription against writing or creating of any sort.

On Sundays, Hebrew lessons and religious instruction were followed by choral rehearsal and Israeli folk dancing. There was a chorus and a dance group for each of several age brackets -- grade and middle schoolers, teens and adults. In addition, the numerous Jewish holidays and festivals we observed created opportunities for a variety of arts and crafts projects, theater skits and pageantry. This was my early experience with the arts.

Looking back on it, I did have fun and find fellowship at shul and -- especially with regard to the folk dancing -- I was introduced to activities which to this day provide some of my greatest pleasures. The problem was that even the creative outlets were offered within narrow parameters. Subject matter was always along cultural or religious lines: We only did Israeli dances. When we had arts and crafts, we made Seder plates and Hanukah menorahs. We sang Hebrew songs, acted out the Purim play, and put on cabarets to raise money for Israel. But on the Sabbath, the day of itchy dresses, after a long week of coloring within the lines at public