In Praise of Macaroons, Peace Treaties & Women Breaking Bread Together

Without a doubt I get as winesappy as a badly-made pie crust, and this is one of those occasions.

Our writing at Anne of Carversville is always a series of connecting dots in seemingly unrelated events. My Sensually Yours column is primarily devoted to the pursuit of health and longevity through sexual wellness, which includes eating sexy foods that are increasingly tied to healthy brains and bodies.

It’s also my belief that honoring Nature, rather than dominating and destroying her, is key to living a good life. Living in the small Bucks County village of Carversville grounded me in the importance of natural sensuality in our lives.  

Being a highly sensual woman, and researching for almost a decade now the health benefits of positive sensuality, I was stunned one Carversville day, when I looked up the meaning of ‘sensuality’ in the dictionary and thesaurus.

The definitions of the beautiful word “sensual” could make the Pope blush:

1.    pertaining to, inclined to, or preoccupied with the gratification of the senses or appetites; carnal; fleshly.
2.    lacking in moral restraints; lewd or unchaste.
3.    arousing or exciting the senses or appetites.
4.    worldly; materialistic; irreligious.
5.    of or pertaining to the senses or physical sensation; sensory.
6.    pertaining to the philosophical doctrine of sensationalism. (See For the Birds and the Bees | The importance of Sensuality in our Lives)

Does this suggest that enjoying birdsongs or Chopin makes me lewd, unchaste, and lacking in spirituality? Who decides the meaning of words?

When I saw this deliciously, divinely decadent pile of treats on Lula Magazine’s Facebook page, my heart tightened with emotion, transporting me not to Laduree, my favorite place to buy macaroons in Paris but to the Western Wall of Jerusalem, where I seriously doubt that one will find a macaroon shop.

The FB recommendation that I ‘Like’ Lula came from one of my young women friends living in India. I saw several other young Lula women who have embraced me, and I them.

These thoughts took me to my favorite Anne post on macaroons, one that will never get me in the Macaroon Wars on The Food Network, should The Cupcake Wars not quench our global thirst for aggressive competition, even in the kitchen.

We Smart Sensuality girls want to eat our macaroons in peace, if only men would let us.

Bare with me now.

The way my mind works, when I see these gorgeous ladies, they remind me of macaroons. The women above live in India, and the ladies below in Pushtar, Pakistan. 

Just yesterday, the story finally broke in America that India is correct in asserting that David Coleman Headley was a double agent, working for both the Americans and the terrorists in Pakistan, the ones who attacked macaroon-eating ladies in Mumbai.

I’m no pollyanna on these matters. The wife of al-Qaida’s No. 2 official purportedly is urging Muslim women to help militants, even to the point of carrying out suicide missions. But it’s also true that David Coleman Headley’s wife went to the American authorities, informing them that her husband was up to no good in Pakistan.

Did they listen to her? ‘No’.After all, she’s just a woman and men know best.

Note also, that Anne of Carversville stumbled into this story, because we read the Indian press. We wrote about the Headley allegations when the American media was silent.

I was pretty ‘down’ the day I wrote Global Peace Treaties and the Meaning of Macaroons last December 2009. Back then I was coming to grips with this fact that religion is the biggest stumbling block in liberating women. Religion mostly seeks to keep women in their places. 

For most of my life, Judaism had been a beacon of hope and intellectual light for me. Learning about the ‘Women of the Wall’ protests at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, I got a good education in ‘new Judaism’ in Israel. The Judaism that inspired me for so many years is also co-opted by extremists.

It was in Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour that I learned that a woman’s voice is considered to be corrupting by the most orthodox Jews. Ah yes, woman as lewd, unchaste siren. The definition of ‘sensuality’ was again dictated by the Pope into my ears. Women praying at the Western Wall (as opposed to the women’s section near it) would contaminate it forever, as does my hand which cannot be shaken by the most religious men of Israel.

Perhaps I am wrong about Macaroon Madness at the Western Wall, and Israel’s culinary queen will help me make my point. Let’s stop right here, though, and agree that both are succulent sweets. A Jewish macaroon and one from Laduree are very different creatures. Praise the Goddess, that as of this writing, the world isn’t going to war over whose macaroon is blessed by the Old Testament.

I’m starting over in my quest for a peace treaty in Philadelphia, a city that has been part of my life for decades. Perhaps I was inching forward into the city of brotherly love, and Carversville was my half-way point.

The strife at the World Trade Center site clinched the deal for me. I deliberately moved to the construction site at the WTC, living on the south side with a desire to be part of the rebuilding process. But now the strife is Jerusalem has come to lower Manhattan as well, and there will be no macaroon-eating parties.

Many women are also like the Israelites, wandering and yearning for our international homeland, built on peace. I watched the PBS show on God in America this week, and heard from exactly ONE woman in the first episode. Her image on the front page is misleading.

Outspoken, opinionated and well versed in the Bible, (Anne) Hutchinson accuses the ministers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of teaching false doctrine and asserts that God has spoken to her directly — a claim considered heresy in Puritan theology. Hutchinson’s righteous insistence gets her in trouble with the religious and political authorities, including Governor John Winthrop. Charged with sedition, she is tried, banished and excommunicated.

Anne Hutchinson believed that it wasn’t necessary for men to interpret God for her.  So many people were drawn to her pious view of having a private relationship with God, that Hutchinson’s influence that she was faced with imprisonment. To her credit, Hutchinson refused to back down to the male council that tried her.

The other encouraging piece of macaroon-eating news that emerged this week is that even highly religious, more conservative women have a different view of God than men do. After four centuries of American male religious authorities hammering a vision of God as punishing and ferocious to the immorality of humans, women tend to see God as more benevolent, supportive, understanding and forgiving.

Most women don’t have the courage of Anne Hutchinson to state their views of a more benevolent God in public and especially in the presence of men. They might go to the stockade. But taking private tests that don’t have obvious answers, women emerge as having a different view of God than many men do.

The new book America’s Four Gods is sold out. My copy should come from Amazon in 2 weeks, after I tried to get it same day at Border’s and Barnes & Noble. This is a good sign for a change in America’s dietary habits.

Even though religious strife has driven me from my lovely apartment in lower Manhattan, I am hopeful again, here in Philadelphia. Independence Hall is four blocks away and I plan on spending a lot of time at the Liberty Bell.

America wasn’t founded in Alaska or Montana, and not even Texas. With an open mind, I am on a new quest to understand the history of America and our contribution to global macaroon wars.

I continue to believe that earnest dialogue and a plate of sweets would be good for the world’s women, who are considered the only hope for the future of our planet. 

Sensuality is rooted in feeling, emotional response and caring. Sensuality is nurturing and not corrupting. Women will not go to hell, because we’ve shared a plate of macaroons, comparing notes on women’s status around the world.

It is true that patriarchal values are at risk, if women start having sharing macaroon recipes in peace, breaking bread together, rather than going to war over cupcakes. The patriarchy is well aware of the risks of women getting smart around the world.

The innate immorality of women is part of the rice-pudding secularism that Pope Benedict condemns.

Just this week, the Vatican announced the formation of a new office to combat the growth of Anne Hutchinson’s beliefs — that a Pope isn’t required to keep women in line, that we are fundamentally good not bad, corrupting creatures.

Here in the city of Philadelphia, I hope to achieve a better understanding of the founding of America. Reading that Conservatives are making Thomas Jefferson out to be a bad guy has me steamed.

I trust that I won’t lose my substantial New York audience, now that I’ve moved out of my ivory tower in Manhattan. Certain issues are best considered further down the road. And besides … this journey began again in Carversville.

It’s Always Sunny with BBB

More reading:

For the Birds and the Bees | The Importance of Sensuality in Our Lives

J’Adore: Ladurée’s Most Sensual Macaroons in the World

If Only We Could Have Lubna Hussein, Dr Catherine Lim & My Dear Pixie for Tea