TILT

An Adventure Memoir of Living Abroad and Letting Go of Life’s Trappings: Material Possessions, Cultural Blinders, and a Patriarchal Christian Worldview. By Mary Coday Edwards

A book review by Terryl Warnock.

“Christian Feminist” had long been a perplexing term for this non-Christian feminist, rather like a mathematical equation in which complex terms on both sides of the equal sign reduce themselves to zero. Christianity canceled out feminism and feminism canceled out Christianity.

Notice that there are two very different Christianities currently in play. There is Christianity as myth—the one that says love thy brother and live an ethical life and help the poor; and then there is Christianity as reality—the one that supports avarice, cruelty, political corruption, and grinding women’s rights under the boot heel of patriarchal hierarchy.

Mary Coday Edwards stepped into this breach without hesitation as a young woman. With her husband and children, she voluntarily waded into the cesspool of Asian patriarchy in the true spirit of Christian charity (the mythical one). Her husband offered his ophthalmological expertise to people who had no access to eye care while she used her architectural and engineering skills to rebuild infrastructure in Afghanistan. The Edwards family rendered meaningful aid to Afghan refugees after the Soviets abandoned the country, leaving it devastated, in 1992. Theirs is a journey that spans continents and decades. The family moved on to East Africa, Indonesia, and even Europe, all in the spirit of true Christian charity, to help the blessed poor and meek as they were so clearly directed to do by their Christ (the mythical one).

Edwards’ story is compelling. It is written with the good humor and gentle acceptance of her fellow man (gendered noun intentional) a feminist like me can only experience through the eyes of another. A smart, well-educated woman, Edwards endured mullahs ranting at her for traveling without her husband, and exposed herself to danger from violent patriarchal men in the course of such simple tasks as taking a taxi to work or attending a wedding. All for the sake of her Christian good deeds.

This memoir exposes the tragedy of colonialism forced on cultures and people who refuse to give in and refuse to give up. To Travel Well, Travel Light is historically, politically, religiously, geographically, and culturally informative. It is pertinent, accessible, and real. It does not flinch from the poverty and injustice our intrepid narrator encountered in her travels, but still manages to convey hope for the future through a thousand acts of kindness both large and small. If you are as ignorant as I was about the history and dynamics of this important region, with its vanishingly complex tribal politics—alien to a western mind accustomed to things like a central government that adheres to a top down hierarchy of power, order of law, and firm territorial boundaries—this book offers meaningful insight.

To Travel Well, Travel Light would have been a gripping read had it ended there, but Edwards goes on to share the spiritual growth she experienced along the way. Like so many pilgrimages, it is more the journey than the destination that transforms the seeker. Mary Coday Edwards’ is the heart-rending tale of a purposeful, driven quest to do the right thing as she was directed by her God, His Son, and His Holy Book. They all let her down. She ultimately discovers she is serving a God that doesn’t exist. Mythical Christianity eludes her while the Christianity of reality beats her down time and time again.

Mary Coday Edwards sought meaning in the religion of her fathers, even as a cavernous “black hole was opening up within her that threatened to pull her into its toothy maw” (Pg. 218). For all that she faithfully tried to keep the spark of mythical Christian religious purpose alight, the spark and yearning that had taken her around the world, she found no room for herself in the Christianity of reality. She found no room for women, nor any worth for herself in church leadership, no matter how far she traveled, how much she gave, nor how persistently she searched. Her quest is beset by the oh-so-human desire for certainty. Christianity is not the only mainstream religion to manipulate and tantalize its flock with the hope and safety of certainty. Edwards exposes this for the soporific it is, asking the question “If you have emptiness in you, is it you who is doing something wrong?”

This excellent memoir recounts a thinking woman’s journey to peace, and ultimately, to spiritual fulfillment. Fear not, this is a story with a happy and satisfying ending, one you will delight in discovering for yourself. If you seek likewise, if your human quest is for meaning and community, you too will treasure To Travel Well, Travel Light.

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Gratitude list:

Graphic design by AJ Brown

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@mral

Images are from Mary Coday Edwards.

Terryl is grateful to people who love to read and of course it follows, people who love to write. Mary Coday Edwards shares her compelling story of spiritual yearning and quest for religious belonging in To Travel Well, Travel Light . This is a journey all who Seek share in some way. Edwards’ story is unique in the extraordinary lengths she goes to in her quest.

AL and Terryl are both very grateful, always, to the people who read our work. You are what makes all this worthwhile.

Terryl Warnock is an eccentric with a happy heart who lives on the outskirts of town with her cat. She is known as an essayist, proof reader, editor, maker of soap, and proud pagan. A lifetime student, she has pursued science, religion, and sustainable communities. This, plus life experience from the local community service to ski instructor, from forest service worker to DMV supervisor, from hospitality to business owner gives her a broad view on the world.

Terryl is the author of:
The Miracle du jour, ISBN-10: 0989469859, ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0-9894698-5-2

AJ Brown, in a past life, was an embedded systems engineer (digital design engineer). He worked on new product designs from hard disk controllers, communication protocols, and link encryptors to battery monitors for electric cars.

A few years ago he surrendered his spot on the freeway to someone else. Now he is more interested in sailing, building out his live-in bus for travel, and supporting the idea of full-circle food: the propagation, growth, harvest, storage, preparation, and preservation of healthy sustenance. He is a strong supporter of Free/Libre Open Source Software[F/LOSS] and is willing to help most anyone in their quest to use it.

Together, we are MoonLit Press.