A few weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away after battling cancer for many years. As a beloved public figure for many Americans, she was a champion of womens' rights whose accomplishments, among many, included enacting into law the right for a woman to sign a mortgage without a man, the right to have a bank account without a male cosigner, the right to have a job without being discriminated based on gender and the right for a woman to work while pregnant and/or have kids. She was also the Supreme Court justice who wrote the majority opinion in the Olmstead case, declaring that people with disabilities have the right to live in their own communities rather than in institutions. I have never had much interest in the lives of supreme court justices nor legal matters very much but after having watched a movie based on her life called,
On the Basis of Sex. I have a greater appreciation for her courage, compassion, tenacity and intellect and feel grateful that she was one of the chosen nine to sit in the highest court of the land for so many years and feel fortunate to have occupied this earthly space with her in it. The movie portrays a young law student who is patronized by the administrators of Yale Law School as she endures double standards where preferential treatment was given to male students over her. And, as a young graduate of a prestigious Ivy League law school, she was unable to land her dream job as a litigator, had to settle for a teaching position and had to watch the rise of her husband's legal career, which she, too, wanted all the while playing the role of a supportive wife. Despite all the injustices she suffered throughout her life, RBG states that she was grateful for when, where, and under the unjust conditions she was born into because it gave her an opportunity to make needed changes and alter people's lives for the better, which in turn elevated her own status. Had she been born in a time when rights to women were already available, she might as well have just retired as a partner of a law firm and not have had the opportunities to make groundbreaking legal changes which set her life path as a supreme court justice. I wonder if she came to this realization while she was going through her suffering or achieved this understanding in later years when hindsight is 20/20.
When we are going through the thick of our darkest hours, it is hard to see meaning and purpose for our suffering but when the clouds lift, hopefully we can see why things had to play out as they did. Among some metaphysical circles, there is a belief that everyone came into the world with suffering of their own choosing and that a pact with God was made before our physical incarnation on how our lives will play out and what hiccups we will experience. I like to entertain this perspective because it doesn't make someone to feel a perpetual victim of life's fickle circumstances but gives meaning and empowerment and leaves room for making choices and to exercise free will. Although tangible physical changes may not always be possible, a shift in thought can lead to greater peace and assurance of situations as thoughts are real things, too.
Her death triggered within me to ponder the question of why I chose the specific suffering that has been tailored to my own life. What conversation was had in heaven with God and my angels on what would need to be transformed, healed and brought to light through my own unique suffering in this life?
RBG passed away on Rosh Hashanah and in the Jewish faith it is believed that a soul who passes on Rosh Hashanah is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness and justice proving God makes no mistake, His divine timing is always right and there is a reason for all of life's suffering.
