A Love Letter to Womankind From Your Awakening Brother, Mankind (A tribute and an apology to Womankind, from Mankind)
Click here to hear the author narrate this essay
I believe that the time has come for men and women to make peace with each other. And I believe that men bear a greater burden in this endeavor than women. I truly honor and respect women, yet many men don’t. But, thankfully, that is gradually changing.
This letter is written on behalf of all mankind, as an expression of my concern for men and women. Both have suffered far too long from the wrongs of each. We must make peace now.
My Beloved Sister, Womankind,
How long I, your brother, have been asleep! How long I have been unconscious of your unceasing love, which you’ve given to me despite the hardness of my heart, the blindness of my eyes, and the cruelty of my hands, during the long night of my selfishness. Somehow you have always been there for me, even when I didn’t realize it.
I’ve been so asleep to your love and compassion, by which you sustained me, even in my worst moments. I’ve been so asleep to the cruelty and pain I’ve so thoughtlessly inflicted upon you. And for all this, I am profoundly sorry and I earnestly seek your forgiveness.
Finally I’m awakening, and I acknowledge the error of my ways and seek to rejoin your heart. I truly honor you for your incredible faithfulness to me during my long night of unconsciousness.
Somewhere within the depths of my being, and despite my unconsciousness, I finally heard your endless cries and felt your ceaseless pain—your cries from lifetimes of suffering at my hands, and your pain from eons of my thoughtlessness. And I’m eager and wanting to be at peace with you.
Despite the cruelty of my former blindness, there is love within me, a love as tender as any mother’s love—the love of our Holy Parent. And I am gradually gaining the courage to express that love to you and to my brothers, despite the teachings of men that males shouldn’t show their feelings. You’ll begin to feel that love more, as I continue to awaken to my true identity as your loving brother.
I have finally remembered that, like you, I am love, to the core of my being, and that I need not seek to get love from you, but only need to share my love with you.
I now long to rejoin you in the love we once shared with our Holy Parent, Father/Mother God. I long to give to you the love that has lain dormant, but not forgotten, in the depths of my heart.
I’m keenly aware that nothing I could ever do would ever repay you for all the grief you have suffered at my hands. Only your love has the power to forgive my sins against you and to welcome me back into your heart. And I long for that reunion.
I know that only my complete honesty and total vulnerability can ever hope to prove my sincerity and regain your trust—a trust so violated, so many times, in so many ways.
Though I don’t deserve your mercy, still I ask for your continued support as I genuinely seek to earn your trust again and to deserve your love. I ask you to take one more step in my direction, feeling the sincerity of my heart, that we may once again be united, and may once again live in peace. And in return, I will earnestly keep you ever in my heart and mind, and ask you to remind me, should I ever begin to lose sight of you again.
I believe the time has come for all of God’s children to live in peace and be one again. And I offer my life and my heart to you and to my brothers toward the fulfillment of that dream.
Please find the courage, the strength, and the willingness, one last time, to welcome me back—forevermore.
Your Loving Brother, Mankind
Charles David Heineke, April 27, 1997
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