- To the women on our staff
- To the women among our readers
- To the women in our lives
- To the women everywhere…
O Woman–
We, the men of the Sherman Oaks Review of Books, hereby consciously apologize for our unconsciousness. We have selfishly and un-creatively marshalled and em-bundled the masculine energies we so worshipfully divined with our intuition that, we believed, would enable us to subjugate the sacredness of the feminine—in you, your mother, your grandmother, her mother, your sister, your daughter, your sister, your daughter, your niece, your other niece, and all of your cousins whom you reckon up by dozens, and your aunts.
We now own that we are fully aware. We rejoice to know that it makes us happy to embrace the fact that you know that we acknowledge that we are men. But we are so much more than that. We are stewards of the masculine energy of which we are the owners of. It is from this position of awareness, of knowing, that we are now able to apologize, not only to you, but to every dimension of you as a woman and as a vessel for the divine feminine, whoever and wherever you have envesseled it. This is our pledge, and our apology, and our desire to express the sorrow we hereby say we feel. We forgive you for being unconscious, just as we forgive ourselves. It is not easy to do so. Do you feel sorry for us? We do, and we truly hope you do, too.
Over thousands of years, much has happened. We sincerely feel bad about some of it—even about those many things which were not our fault, because we weren’t there, or because they were due to the actions of Woman. On behalf of our gender, we want to express our forgiveness—for your actions, and for everything you have done while living. Let us forget about everything and move forward.
But when we invite us to forget about everything, we do not mean truly everything. Let us not forget how to move—forward, backward, in and out. In this way, hand in hand and with one thing in another, let us remember how to move to a new tomorrow—today, this evening, or as soon as is mutually convenient. We feel strongly that a new day is coming, and so are we.
In order to do so, we hereby commit to acknowledging the spirituality of the feminine. It is a spirituality rooted in Nature. It is a spirituality rooted in the Earth. It is a spirituality rooted in the female body.
And that is why we, as fully-owned and -operated masculine males, have for millennia sought to root in the female body as well. We now stand fully present with ourselves, gifting ourselves to you. Our present is now. Our present is our gift; our gift is our present.
It gives us a feeling of excitement to contemplate what is ahead of us—both “us” us, as men, and you-and-us, as women and us, i.e., men. Because ahead of us lies another dimension. A dimension of sight. A dimension of sound. A dimension of mind. Within this dimension, we honor your capacity to listen to your body, just as we honor our capacity to look at your body and, if necessary, to listen to it.
It is true that, in the past, we have acted badly. We have been in the grip of lust, or in the lust of grip, or perhaps rendered half mad by an unquenchable thirst for true beer flavor. We have not taken “No” for an answer. Or we have said, “Okay, ‘no,’ but that really means ‘yes,’ right?” That will no longer be the case. Rather, from this day forth, we will not take anything for an answer. There will be no answers. Because there will be no questions. We applaud ourselves for this and we invite you to do so as well.
Furthermore, and at no cost to you, we vow that we will treat your heart as a sacred temple. We will treat your mind as a divine manifestation of infinite awareness. We will treat your body as a holy principle—a principle we will willingly embrace.
We deeply hope that, as we forgive ourselves and our gender for all we have done and have yet to do, you will forgive us, too. And we further hope that, in embracing your body as a sacred principle, you will embrace our body as well. Together, we want to join you in celebrating the play of masculine and feminine energies. We want you to play with our energy. And we want to play with you and yours. We freely acknowledge that your energy resides in your body, and that is why we want to play with your body.
It is with this in mind that we re-dedicate ourselves to our Mission, not only at the Sherman Oaks Review of Books, but wherever men and women, individually and as a body, respect each other’s feelings, and feel each other’s respective bodies.
