Sage Sweetwater wrote this tale in protest of womens' collapse of ambition where Hope, Wish, and Maybe live in the folly of fairyland, a waste of time in a bottle.
Well, here we are at the bottleneck, a narrow passage, as opposed to who keeps the genie in the bottle; Hope, Wish, and Maybe, three negative words of procrastination, this tale is about I, Can, and Do, three educated, positive words of ambition.
I wrote this tale in protest of womens' collapse of ambition where Hope, Wish, and Maybe live in the folly of fairyland, a waste of time in a bottle.
Our feminist genie is strong in her now, has a burning itch to know, see, and do; she's out scooping booty, in other words, looking for ambitious girls and women.
It all starts early on in a young girl's life. Did you have a Kool-Aid refreshment stand when you were a young girl?
Feel free to read this folktale and compare it to this paraphrase. Perhaps it will allow you to understand more about the lives of feminists, lesbians, and just plain women who are just proud to be, and honor their birthright with ceremonies of respect, festivity, and positive living...
...Don't expect this to be a story about a sultan in a Moslem country who sacrifices a goat in a sadistic blood-letting ritual and commands this genie out of the bottle to give him his three wishes, dance for him and perform sexual favors behind her veil where she is submissive and says, "Yes, master...my wish is your command." Rather, it is a story with underlying feminist philosophy, the author's belief that the feminist world is filled instead with a cornucopia of motive and ambition...
...From this point forward, the two are intertwined---a genie released from a bottle and Ambition, the name of her white female goat with horns of painted blue. The genie's "naked" ride does not mean that she is dressed in her finery. She rides naked upon the back of Ambition...Lady Goat-Diva...
..."Get above your raisin!" the genie shouts from atop her goat, her favorite expression meaning "to be educated."...
...Who keeps the genie in the bottle? Hope, Wish, and Maybe, three neurotic words of procrastination...
...Who lets the genie out of the bottle? I, Can, and Do, three educated, positive words of ambition...
...The horns of a goat are hollow and represent the cornucopia, The Horn of Plenty, a cone-shaped metaphor for plenty of ambition...
...It all starts early on in a young girl's life...with the Kool-Aid refreshment stand. These ambitious little girls know what they want from early on...I, Can, and Do, they let the genie out of the bottle...
...The genie parks her goat under a shade tree and throws on a cool summer dress with small pink flowers and spaghetti straps. She's going to get her a glass of Kool-Aid...maybe even a refill...donate to the little feminist cause...the motive being ambition...
...These three little girls are "above their raisin." They have plenty of nickels, dimes, and quarters, even a few dollar bills to make change. Just listen to them...
..."Just painted them this morning, Miss," the nine-year-old girl says, referring to the Adirondack chairs in bright Kool ambition...
..."Are they dry?" the genie asks, because she wants to sit down and chat with the little girls over a glass of their Kool ambition...
..."We took turns drying them with a hair dryer," giggles the ten-year-old. "Won't you sit down and have a glass, Miss?"...
..."How much for a glass?" the genie asks. They haven't got their sign up yet...
..."Twenty-five cents," the smiling six year-old says. Her and the nine-year-old are blond sisters, the ten-year-old is their mutual friend. They're all three wearing pink dresses and white straw sun hats. "We spray-painted our hats just this morning too, Miss, the same white as we painted this wicker table."...
..."You all three look just beautiful. I'd like to have a glass of your Kool-Aid," the genie said. "Extra ice cubes, please...it sure is hot today."...
..."We checked the weather report this morning. It said hot, so we made an extra pitcher...one to three in the afternoon is the hottest and the thirstiest time," the ten-year-old said...
...The six-year-old is sitting on a nice patch of green, manicured grass under a shade tree where they put the refreshment stand so it would be more enjoyable to the customers and sellers. She has a big white piece of poster board and she is writing Kool-Aid 25 cents with a bright pink crayon...
...Her sister is putting a dozen or so envelopes of Kool-Aid in a white wicker basket sitting on the table. "We spray-painted this basket too, Miss."...
...Kool centerpiece," the genie said. "You three girls sure do have a lot of ambition."...
..."We know what that means," the six-year-old said, "It means we have a goal. We all have Barbies and when we send the empty Kool-Aid packages back to the company, we can earn points to get Barbies."...
..."I would like a refill," the genie says, handing the nine-year-old another quarter. "Just the right amount of sugar...Mmmm."...
..."We only charge ten cents for a refill," the girls all said, rehearsed, and then count the genie her change. "Thank you, Miss," the girls all say, rehearsed...
...Looking back on the way to her goat, the genie smiles and sees the girls spray-painting their matching brown sandals white, then painting their toenails ambition pink. A picture is worth a thousand words. The genie zooms in her telephoto lens and captures a lovely young portrait of ambition. Thank you, their mothers...
...These may be mommy's and daddy's little girls now, but they have the look and language who will grow into ambitious, liberated women. The key is how early a girl is encouraged to assume initiative. Some psychologists say the die is cast before a girl reaches the age of six. The six-year-old girl's whose IQ is going to raise, "get above her raisin," is the girl who is already ambitious, competitive, self-assertive, and independent...
...Girls at private girls' schools are learning how to control their financial destinies. In pre-calculus, they plot spreadsheets how long their retirement will last depending on how early they start saving, yielding a bigger nest egg, for instance saving $1,000 dollars a year from their 20th birthday until their 30th than saving the same amount from age 30 until retirement. The inspiration is feminist, their teachers saying "Don't rely on Prince Charming or his money. He won't rescue you. Happily ever-after often isn't and women are likely to end up spending their lives alone, ending up old and poor."...
...The genie resumes her naked ride atop her goat, scouting for more ambition, scooping booty, in other words. She sees from a distance what looks like a bunch of bright colored birds flocked together. As she rides closer, she sees it is a group of fifty or more women all dressed in purple outfits and red hats on the museum lawn. The genie parks her goat under a tree and throws on a lavender loose-fitting shift. She's going to see who these women are...
..."Who are you women?" the genie asks...
..."Do you know how hard it is to find a red hat, Miss?" one of the women says. "We're the Red Hat Society."...
..."Do you have to wear purple with a red hat?" the genie asked...
..."Heavens Yes!" the woman exclaims. "We refuse to fade into the woodwork."...
..."What are you busy doing here today?" the genie asked...
..."Not a thing but flaunting golden age---not a one of us here under 50. We're recruiting new members," she said with merriment and ambition...
...Do you have to be 50?" the genie asked...
..."Heavens Yes!" the woman answered with ambitious authority. "To be official, you have to be 50 or older, but younger women like yourself are welcome, you just can't wear purple or the red hat, not until you reach that magic age."...
...Seems these women flock together for effect and camraderie and to flaunt getting old. There is no president or board members, and NO rules, except those applying to attire. These women let it be known they have no intention of going gently into the night. They don't meet, they throw parties....
..."To cause a spectacle---that is their idea," a woman dressed in lavender and wearing a pink hat says to the genie, handing her a cup of punch that has been spiked by one of the senior ladies who hollers, "Bingo!" to let the ladies know she's added a pint of ambition to the punch...
..."You must not be that magic age," the genie said....
...Only 47, not yet eligible for purple or the red hat," the woman said, "but full of ambition just the same."...
...Self-expression mainly, the senior ladies making a statement, raising awareness about aging, the Red Hat Society gives these women a chance to meet new friends...
..."Do you know how hard it is to find a red hat?' another woman says to the genie. The woman is holding a can of red spray paint about to fix the hat's age. "What I would give to own a red velvet hat! Most of us just buy straw hats and spray-paint them red."...
..."Did you have a Kool-Aid refreshment stand when you were a little girl?" the genie asked her...
..."Heavens Yes!" the woman exclaims. "Kool-Aid's over 75 years old, older than me. When I was a little girl, the envelopes of Kool-Aid sold for ten cents. That was in the mid-'40s. My sister, myself, and our little Shirley Temple look-alike girlfriend sold it for a nickel a glass," she said with a reminiscent smile. "I wonder what a glass of it goes for today?"...
...Twenty-five cents," the genie said, then waved goodbye. She's off to the thrift store to see if she can find a pink hat...
...The happiest women are ambitious, courageous, knowledgeable, open to new experiences, and playful, with a sense of humor...
...The genie is a blower of glass, a gaffer. She blows her five-foot pipe with molten glass on the end into bottles and flawless glass cornucopias, containers of ambition, her inspiration being the Kool-Aid pitcher with the smiley face---the one she sold Kool-Aid out of her refreshment stand in the 60s when she was six years old and on. Who lets the genie out of the bottle? I, Can, and Do...
Kimberly has gone from a well-paid female executive one minute to a desperate woman the next. Thinking her day can't possibly get any worse, she finds out how wrong she is when she goes home. The only way to set things straight is to get even.
Kimberly has gone from a well-paid female executive one minute to a desperate woman the next. Thinking her day can't possibly get any worse, she finds out how wrong she is when she goes home. The only way to set things straight is to get even.
