THE DANCE OF THE DISSIDENT DAUGHTER by SUE MONK KIDD
Review by Andrea Lord

A journey on discovering the feminine mystique without becoming anti-male.

Sue Monk Kidd, seemingly content with the rhythm of her life as a Christian writer, married to a deacon living in the
American south writes,

'I was going along doing everything "I should" have been doing, and then, unexpectedly, I woke up. I collided
with the patriarchy within my culture, my church, my faith tradition, my marriage, and also within myself'.

The wake up happens when one day when she goes to pick up her daughter from work, she enters the store, sees
her daughter stocking a lower shelf with two men towering over her laughingly commenting that that is where a woman
belongs - on her knees! At this cataclysmic point Kidd experiences a major epiphany of just what a woman's place is?
Angry and hurt she begins her spiritual journey, slowly untangling her roots which are firmly based in a southern Baptist
patriarchal tradition but whose branches long to embrace the feminine principle. She shares her journey in an honest open manner. She admits,

'Such journeys maybe new for you; you may want to launch out into women's spirituality, but at the same time
you may feel terribly hesitant, I can only tell you, I understand this. When I began, such journeys were painfully
new to me, too. 'You could hardly have found a more hesitant beginner, or paradoxically, a more eager one.'

You experience with her as she discovers her intuition rising and pushing her into rebirth, her shock at finding out that
she wasn't included in the most sacred of rights simply because she was a woman, and feel her joy as she re-discovers
her marriage becoming a true partnership. The most surprising thing about this book is the likely possibility that the author's
journey and the reader's journey come together and overlap in surprising moments. I never felt preached to, I only felt
exposed to her journey so I could draw my own conclusions or similarities. She offers,

'This book will walk you through the journey. It will illumine the passages. It may even hold your hand.'

She poured out her spiraling awareness flecked with an array of emotions; anger, determination, fear, joy, compassion,
humility and love in personal experiences easy to relate to. I would be reading along when I would be overcome by a
strong emotional pull towards comparing some attitude or pattern of behavior that I had developed from growing up in a
patriarchal society, yet with her companionship I could weather the feeling and return back to my center a little wiser,
as she states at the end of the introduction,

'In the end, no matter where you are in the spectrum of women's spirituality, I invite you to weave new connections
to your female soul. For always, always, we are waking up then waking up some more.'

I extend the invitation!