Day 126: Ronna Detrick

February 3, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Featured, Inspiration

“I think bottom line for any of us to understand our potential we need to be in relationship.  It’s what matters the most, it’s what changes us again and again and again.  And when we can be open to that and allow for that in powerful ways, that’s beautiful.  There’s nothing better than that.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Ronna, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Ronna Detrick: Absolutely.  My name is Ronna Detrick, and I am a writer, a speaker, and a lover of good conversation, usually in the realms of faith and feminism, but always about telling the truth.

Toni: Great, well thank you.  Ronna, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?

Ronna: Well, I would love to think that I inspire anyone I talk to, anyone who reads my writing.  But probably more important would be the “how.”  And I think and hope that I do that by telling the truth, by telling my truth, by revealing aspects of my own life, my own experiences, my own thoughts and feelings and perspectives — certainly on these huge topics of faith and feminism — and then articulating those in new and hopefully meaningful ways.

I hope that I inspire people by encouraging them to believe that the things they most hope for and desire are worth pursuing and risking everything for and consistent with their faith and their feminism and their questions in the mix of both of those realms.

Toni: How do you think inspiring people to think in that way will help them explore their potential?

Ronna: Gosh, I just feel like … when I think about potential, and when I think about the realms of faith and feminism particularly, the words that come up for me again and again in my own life but also in conversation with others are those of desire and passion.

I think for women in particular, those are really provocative words that we often feel like we have to apologize for.  They feel dangerous, like the risks associated with naming or acknowledging desire and passion might just be too great; but I just don’t believe that.  I think that the risks are way too great if we don’t pursue our passions and our desires, and I think that the cost of doing so is well worth the benefit.

So when I think about that in the context of faith and feminism, I think again they can be just such daunting and huge categories for us that we are afraid to dive into them.  But for me, the potential in both of them is just super unlimited.

Feminism is all about this acknowledgement of our desire and our passion and faith.  If faith isn’t about the nurturing of our passion and desire, then why bother?  I get that that’s language that often isn’t used around these categories, but I land here again and again and again; and I think that if I can believe that faith and feminism are all about passion and desire, risk and trust and hope and life, that’s where potential thrives.  I want to be exploring those things for myself all the time, and I want to explore their potential in and for others all the time.  They’re just categories that deeply matter to all of us, I think.

Toni: Do you think as far as your work is concerned that faith and feminism, whether you stand alone is one thing, but the two together … is it your belief that they are more powerful together than separate?

Ronna: Absolutely.  They’re not mutually exclusive to me, and I think that’s part of the conversation that I really try to have because, in many aspects of our culture, they are separated from one another almost as if they’re polar opposites.  And that’s just not my belief system, I mean, regardless of which way I go.

If I look at it from the perspective of faith, I really believe that the narratives that we have — regardless of the sacred texts we use — speak again and again and again about and to the strength and passion and beauty of women.  That is not the story that has often been told in faith contexts on women’s behalf, on men’s behalf, frankly, on our culture’s behalf.  And that’s hugely important, I think, for all of us to be able to acknowledge and see that in powerful, redemptive ways.

And I think from the other side of the equation, if we look at things from a feminist perspective, often it is very difficult for us to step into realms of faith because those have been harmful places for women throughout time.  And so we tend to pull the two apart.  And I think that as a feminist, I become even more powerful and more clear about who I am as a woman in particular, why my voice matters, when I can incorporate that into my faith.   I want the two to be combined.

I get that they are confusing and, as they are lived out in practice, they can get very muddled and mixed up.  But I think they have to kind of stay in the same soup, that we need them to be integrated in order for us to have our own lives be holistic, but also to be in relationship and conversation with one another.

Toni: That’s fantastic.  Now let’s talk about you.  What do you need to be inspired?  Where do you go for inspiration?

Ronna: Well, I don’t know if you can tell this, but I am a total extrovert.  So because of that, like the more I get to be with people, the more I get to talk, the more I get to write, the more energy I have to be inspired and do more of those things.  So whether that’s in person or into a microphone or on the phone or in email or blogging or writing in any form, I just can’t get enough of that.  And of course, I am totally inspired by the amazing writing and voices of other people.  I listen to TED talks, I read a zillion other blogs, I read books, I watch movies.  I have amazing conversations with my friends.  I listen to my daughters.

I mean, there are just so many things that do inspire me, and I think I just need to pay attention like to the day-to-day reality of my life and reflect on what it is that I’m seeing and experiencing; and I do that consistently through writing and speaking, and that keeps me inspired.  That keeps me wanting to do more and more of all of it.

Toni: Were you always of this belief of faith and feminism?  Were you … did you always come to the table this way, so passionate about these subjects?

Ronna: You know, it’s funny that you would ask that, because my answer would be no.  I would say that it’s been … there’s more chronology that would say I began in faith context, certainly my own history, my own faith heritage, my upbringing in my family of origin would have been highly faith-based and not in realms of feminism at all.  And then in later years, I have moved far more predominantly into categories of feminism, and now I feel like I’m really working to incorporate those.

But if you were to talk to friends of mine or people who have known me for many years, they would say I’ve always had these things integrated.  Now, I’m sure that I talk about them differently, and I have read more and I’ve studied more and I’ve worked more at articulating them together, but it has been so … what’s the word I want … so humbling as well as empowering to talk to people from 25 or 30 years ago who say “Oh my gosh, Ronna, you were totally talking about this when we knew you then.”  I’m like “No I wasn’t.”  They’re like “Oh, you totally were.  You were more steeped in a faith context but you were always talking about the power of women.  You were always talking about your own voice.”  I’m like “Really?”

So there’s something really beautiful for me about that that acknowledges that this isn’t just some fly-by-night thing that I’ve sort of landed on, but that this somehow speaks to who I am at my core, which is why I think I’m super passionate about it and why it inspires me, because I think it is me, this integration, to some degree.

Toni: So the integration of the two truly is where you have found your purpose?

Ronna: Absolutely, and I think I’m becoming clearer and clearer and clearer on that.  And even as I talk out loud, like even talking to you, I can hear the energy in my voice that ramps up when I move into these categories, and it just reminds me like this is the thing.  This is the space where you play and where you’re most passionate, where I know the most inspiration for myself.  And I think when any of us can live into those spaces, we then by our very nature inspire others because they feel it in us.

Toni: Well you can feel it in this interview, the desire and the passion as far as this topic is concerned.  And when you think about your own potential and, you know, fine-tuning this purpose that is there and you can hear it and it’s being cultivated into this gold that you’re carrying, what do you need to continue to explore your own potential so that this thing just bursts wide open?

Ronna: Thanks.  That’s a great question.  I think what I need most consistently is to continue to hear the voices of other people.  Like, I can’t live in a vacuum, and I don’t want to.  I mean, I may think that my thoughts are brilliant and lovely, but I want them enhanced and challenged and pushed and tweaked and all those kinds of things because of other people’s perspectives.

I need feedback, and I need input, and I need to have a mirror held up to me from time to time so that I can see the places where I don’t practice what I preach.  I just … I need to have ongoing good conversation.

I mean, I think bottom line for any of us to understand our potential we need to be in relationship.  It’s what matters the most, it’s what changes us again and again and again.  And when we can be open to that and allow for that in powerful ways, that’s beautiful.  There’s nothing better than that.

Toni: Well, Ronna, I have to tell you just to come to the Get Inspired! Project and share how you inspire but also what you need and then how you’re moving into this area of faith and feminism is an amazing topic.  And you’re right, it isn’t talked about as, you know, two things that need to be there together, so I know that I have been moved by this interview, and I’m sure there’s many other people that are going to go “Wow, I want to see where this goes.  I want to follow this lady!”

Ronna: Me too!

Toni: Well, we thank you so very much on behalf of the Get Inspired! Project for showing up today and talking with us about this really powerful conversation.  We appreciate it greatly.

Ronna: Thanks, Toni, totally my privilege.

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For more information about Ronna Detrick:  www.ronnadetrick.com, www.twitter.com/RonnaDetrick

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