Blogging Along the Brandywine: Quiet Wisdom in Loud Times

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When Chadds Ford psychologist Kayta Curzie Gajdos has something to say, she says it brilliantly like the cover of her new book, – a nighttime volcanic eruption

Why the erupting volcano on the cover?

That seemed to be the question of the evening at the release of her new book, “Quiet Wisdom in Loud Times – The Rise of the Wounded Feminine” at the Chester County Book Company in West Chester last Wednesday, June 4.

KCG--Quiet-Wisdom-in-Loud-TimesNow before all you handsome hunks get all weird on me because you saw the words “wounded feminine”, let me clue you in — this is not a chick book. In Jungian philosophy, “feminine” merely refers to the energy of horizontal collaboration, while “masculine” refers to the energy of vertical or hierarchical power.

As Gajdos said at recent signing, “It’s not about men or women — it’s not a gender issue”

OK guys, are you breathing again? Keep reading.

So what about the volcano on the cover?

The picture was taken by Gajdos herself at the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii while she was there for a conference in 2010 giving a paper on the three novels of the Larsson trilogy.  Kilauea is said to be the home of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.

And like a volcanic eruption, this book has been simmering for a long time.

“I’ve wanted to write a book forever”, Gajdos said, “for the past 10 or 20 years”.

And her book has already received widespread acclaim from noted authorities such as Dan Gottlieb, PhD, host of “Voices in the Family”

Part of Gajdos’s inspiration was reading the second novel of the Larsson Trilogy, “The Girl Who Played with Fire.”

In the second story of the trilogy, Lisbeth Salander, is shot by her father and buried by her half-brother. But at dawn, her hand rises from the grave.

“It gave me chills,” Gajdos related. “This was the rise of the wounded feminine”

(OK guys, put your head down between your knees if you have to. Remember, this is not a gender-based issue)

“Then I went back and studied the Larsson Trilogy and discovered he was really on to something”, she said.

According to Gajdos, we need to re-examine world issues like the environment, the economy, politics and the media and ask ourselves how we approach these problems. Are we working in a vertical mode that involves domination and subordination or can we work in a horizontal mode, in the spirit of collaboration and partnership?

One passage in the book that left a really big smile on my face revolved around the criticism American Catholic sisters have received from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church for their work being “tainted by radical feminism”.

Benedictine Nun, author and speaker, Sr. Joan Chittister fired back that the criticism came from “a group of men whose chance of knowing what the term radical feminism means is obviously close to zero!”

Gajdos comments, “What if the new Pope Francis makes Sister Joan a cardinal to become the feminine voice behind the papal throne?”

I’m not going to get into the minutia of Canon Law here, but it could be done.

Reading “Quiet Wisdom in Loud Times” not only opened my eyes to relationships, but left me hungry to learn more about lives of the various personalities Gajdos sites in her book such as novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand and painter-sculpter Käthe Kollwitz.

For more information on Kayta Curzie Gajdos and her book, go to http://www.drgajdos.com and click on “publications.”

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”

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