Women Talking (Miriam Toews) | How Can You Address Legitimate Fears? | Extended Preview

Mother? Again. When we woke up, feeling hands that were no longer there, the elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination. It went on for years, to all of us. It felt like weightlessness. It felt like drifting over what used to be real. It felt like a banishment, as though we had no invitation anymore to be a part of the real. I used to wonder who I would be if it hadn't happened to me. I used to miss the person I might have been. I don't anymore. Because it's doomsday, and a call to prayer. It's both. We caught one of them. I saw his face. And then he named the others. Eventually, the attackers were taken to the police in the city, for their own protection. Almost all of the men of the colony went to the city to post bail for the attackers. We were given two days to forgive the attackers before they returned. If we did not forgive them, we would be ordered to leave the colony, and be denied entry into the kingdom of heaven. Do nothing? Stay and fight? Leave. The girls in our colony had very little schooling. We hardly knew how to read or to write. But that day, we learned how to vote. The vote was tied between staying and fighting, or leaving. So three families, including yours and mine, were elected to decide what the women of the colony would do. Your mother had asked August, the schoolteacher, to take the minutes of our meeting. August came back to the colony just recently. His family had been excommunicated years ago. August had loved your mother since he was a boy. Before we began, your grandmother Agatha told us we had to honor our service to each other. We had to represent it. Just as the disciples were washed by Jesus at the Last Supper, knowing that his hour had come, we only had 24 hours to imagine what world you would be born into. It is a part of our faith to forgive. We have always forgiven those who have wronged us. Why not now? Because now we know better. We will be excommunicated, forced to leave the colony in disgrace if we do not forgive these men. And if we are excommunicated, we forfeit our place in heaven. How can any of you live with the fear of that? These are legitimate fears. How can we address them? The only important thing to establish is if we forgive the men, so that we will be allowed to enter the gates of heaven. You can laugh all you like, Salome, but we will be forced to leave the colony if we don't forgive the men. How, Lord, when he arrives, find the women if we aren't in the colony? Jesus is able to return to life, live for thousands of years, and then drop down to earth from heaven to scoop up his supporters. Surely he'd also be able to locate a few women who left our colony. Let's stay on track. All right, I'll stay on track. I cannot forgive them. I will never forgive them. I can't either. We want to enter the kingdom of heaven when we die. We have everything we want here. No. Want less. Does entering the kingdom of heaven mean nothing to any of you? Surely there must be something worth living for in this life, not only the next. It's all right. Your grandmother used to say, find out where you can be of help, and leave what you can't help behind. I think that's easier when you're old like her. So we must decide now to stay and fight or leave. Those are the options in front of us. We will not do nothing.