Cooties

I forgot for a second about cooties.

In an otherwise very pleasant cultural exchange this morning with a Buddhist priest originally from Malaysia, we were listening to him talk about the ins and outs of building a Stupa. He knew a lot about the energies of the relics, how to differentiate real relics from fake relics, and the faith and determination building such a thing requires. But he had to make sure to mention the importance of "authorized personnel" only in the consecration process, specifically not to allow any menstruating women in on the gig.

I was literally biting my tongue. I wondered what the other women in the room were thinking.

*sigh*

Now, it's not like menstrual taboo impacted my childhood Christian experience directly. Eve and serpents aside, there were no menstrual huts or special bathing rituals. No, it's pretty much filtered down to the medical / commercial realm to indoctrinate me with the idea I am in need of many products to prevent or correct this icky dirty state. I've been trying to unlearn this crap for years.

Like my friend Inga Muscio, says,

That's like hawking floral air freshener to a lady who lives in a rose garden.

Well, there was also the indoctrination of grade school health class.

Girls are told bleeding is a bad thing, an embarrassing thing, a secret thing that we should hide and remain discreet about come hell or high water.

Boys are told to go outside and play sports while the girls learn about some creepy, cootie-laden mystery that makes blood ooze out from our you-know-whats...

...Were we told anything about how our uteruses are almost exactly like the moon, shedding their linings, growing new ones and shedding all over again? Did the Period Movie teach us thing one about how miraculously cool and sublime the human body's reproductive system is when you're a girl?

F--- no.

All I truly gleaned from this experience was that my c--- was the yucksville reason I had to sit in the stupid cafeteria watching some hack nurse show me how to safety pin a three-mile-wide wad of cotton to a pair of brief underpanties even my grandma wouldn't be caught dead in, while the other half of the sixth grade population was out in the sunshine playing softball.

Well, something tells me that for a Stupa under the auspices of Jizo Bodhisattva (Ksitigarbha), menstruation will not be a hindrance.




The Chinese translation of Ksitigarbha is Dizang, which means Earth Womb fer cryin' out loud! And Jizo's realm is that of women, travelers, children, and children who have died. Jizo is known as the Earth Store Bodhisattva -- guardian of all that comes from the earth.

And to my understanding, that includes blood and guts and the miraculously cool and sublime reproductive systems of women's bodies.