I may have studied business in college, but I was most drawn to literature. I enjoyed my underclass creative writing and other english courses so I stuck with it as electives. Two of my favorites, Romantic and Victorian lit, really got me invested in how multifaceted language is—how stories convey meaningful messages and how they represent ideas and feelings we or society aren’t quite ready to accept.
One of the books I enjoyed working with the most was the 1897 Dracula by Bram Stoker. The language he used to describe female vampires was socially unacceptable. It represented the looming appearance of the coming woman—the woman who has choice, free will, and the power to do as she wishes. He described women as voluptuous. He gave them power; they weakened and seduced men. Men couldn’t handle it. Women judged it. Social ramifications aside, this story of superstition conveyed a power of the sexes vibe that made his work a cornerstone piece to embracing a new way of looking at women, at being woman.
A book I’m currently reading that has this same style is Women Who Run With the Wolves. Dr. Pinkola Estes tells and then pulls apart myths and stories of the archetype of the wild woman. One of my favorites so far is the tale of Vasalisa and her daughter’s encounter with Baba Yaga. It’s about her coming of age and learning to trust her intuition and way in the world amidst danger and the luring of others away from her center and path.
My draw to a genre like this, especially centered on the power and presence of women amidst struggle and defeat, feels very much like a no brainer in my life. Family dynamics aside, when I started in wrestling, girls were not openly accepted outside of their close circle of supporters and the outliers that took them in. This experience is far less prevalent now with the growth of women in the sport by sheer numbers, but there are still girls in small towns across the country that experience the pushback and lack of opportunity in a world not ready for them yet.
I’ve said this over and over in different places—we live our lives based on the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and those we know about others that help shape our own. It’s so much more than just the current stories, it’s an analysis of the stories we grow up with and the ones we circulate. Language is important.
This layering even shows up in the Bible. Today in church we went through the parable of the prodigal son for the third time, this week from the perspective of the father. Dang, our pastor does such good work delivering context in the message. To summarize, fathers in the Greco-Roman period were head of the household, characterized by authoritarianism and control. But in the parable, where Jesus compares himself to the father and shows us how God is, the father is radically countercultural. He allowed for rebellion, because God is interested in relationship over compliance. The father in the parable is motivated by love and compassion—and love holds open the possibility of rejection. This is radical for the time period.
I want to keep looking for more of these tales that tell about how we think and expand current ways. I’ve really leaned into true stories of people pushing boundaries and struggling toward success and through failure, but until a recent conversation with a friend I kind of forgot how powerful this kind of fiction is and how invigorating it is to read because the duality of its nature.
People really dis english majors as like a useless thing, but I think there’s a true power in learning to evaluate, compare and use discernment as a lens for life and approaching situations. When I think about liberal arts degrees, that’s kind of what I think of when it’s done right. You get to be conceptual and connect the dots among a wide variety of topics and time periods. It’s one of the reasons I like academics. If I started college again today I would study some combination of philosophy, political science, English and sociology. These things are about how to think, not what to think. But, because I have no intention on going back to school, I’ll dabble here and there in those topics while layering it onto lessons in coaching and life.
All love,
GLK
