Josephine

Comes now the story of Josephine

Josephine was born of humble origin. Her father was a butcher. As she grew up, she developed an interest in philosophy. Josephine loved to think about the world around her. She loved developing ideas about the nature of freedom, love and reason. When he could, her father would pay for a local priest to spend time with Josephine, teaching her to read.

She begged her father to help her obtain an education when she became of age which was scarce for women at that time, especially daughters of butchers.

More than an education, Josephine longed to be free to think and ruminate on the world and its contents. And when Josephine wasn’t thinking, she wanted to sleep when she was tired, eat when she was hungry, bathe when she was dirty. Josephine did not want to be constrained by the rigidity that dominated people of her echelon.

The sun appeared to Josephine and proclaimed that she should pursue her education and dream of thinking but warned that it would not be easy and her work would not be appreciated.

One day while close to becoming of age, Josephine’s father was forced to shut down his butcher shop. A virus had devastated sheep and swine in their village. The virus had been spread there by an infected lamb that was brought to a local herd by a man hoping to eventually breed it and produce larger sheep.

Her father could not borrow money to keep his shop open because a local wealthy merchant lost some of his wealth due to a falling out with the king.

The butcher then tried to stock his shop with beef and poultry but they were located in other villages that were too far away to be delivered to him.

Josephine noticed that her father was faced with a binary outcome, a closed shop or an open shop, even though he had a host of factors that figured into the outcome. She thought about how people tend to think that binary outcomes are based on binary causes. The shop closing proved, to her, that there was no direct correlation between the amount of causes to an incident and the possible outcomes of an incident.

As her father struggled to find work as a farm laborer, Josephine decided to pursue her education in an unconventional way: she would join a monastery. Yes, such places only accepted men, but Josephine felt a convent would not provide her with the opportunity to learn.

Her father did not approve of the plan but allowed her to try and gain entry to the monastery in another village. Josephine bound her breasts with cloth and cut her hair short and attempted a low-pitch tone when she spoke. She approached the monsignor who governed the monastery and asked to join. The monsignor asked Josephine why he/she wanted to join and summoning a little bass in her voice she explained that she wanted to receive an education in theology and philosophy while, of course, serving Jesus. She explained her recent discovery of the dichotomy between binary outcomes and the myriad of factors into those outcomes. Inspired and yet suspicious of the man with an effeminate face and higher than usual pitch to his voice, the monsignor allowed her to take the vows to become a monk.

Josephine did not want the weight on her conscience of pretending to be a man. When the opportunity presented itself, she decided to enter the confessional and admit to the monsignor that she was a woman. Because her admission was made during the sacrament of confession, the monsignor was bound by his vows to maintain her secret and could not discuss it in front of the others. They discussed her predicament in the confessional and Josephine told the monsignor that she faked being a man because she wanted an education that is not available to women in their society. The monsignor took pity upon Josephine and said she could remain. She would have to avoid consorting with the male monks and could not tell anyone of her sex. The monsignor would allow her to receive her education, focusing mostly on theology and philosophy so long as she performed duties in the monastery which included assisting with the meals and cleansing of the laundry. Josephine agreed.

Years passed and Josephine received her education. She learned the history of ancient peoples, philosophy, logic, science, the catechism and the canon of the church. When she was not studying, Josephine would write and develop her ideas. The main focus of her work was power. Her focus came from watching the hierarchy of the church in the monastery and how money, status and influence affected the politics of the monks in the monastery. It was similar to the exchange of power that she noticed her village between the shop owners, the farmers, the merchants and the nobles. Josephine had the realization that the one true struggle of people was the constant flux and fight for power over others. Every facet of human interaction was impacted by this struggle for power. Religion, money, crops, goods and whatever else was important to humans were all part of this great struggle.

Using a literary structure of numbered aphorisms, Josephine wrote a comprehensive, detailed account about her thesis: every human endeavor boiled down to an expression of power. She included historical research and logically tied each aphorism to her work.

It took her several years but she finished her book. Josephine presented it to the monsignor, who was now very old. He was proud of her work and felt it was groundbreaking. He ordered the monks who produced manuscripts to make copies and have the book and its ideas taught in the monastery. The monsignor also sent copies to his bishop with the hope that Josephine’s book would be made available to the public.

Josephine beamed with pride. She was excited to see her education and her work being read by her peers. Some of the monks showed admiration for her ideas but ultimately, Josephine’s book was not well read beyond the walls of her monastery. The bishop wrote the monsignor that her book was interesting but not the type of work that should be spread among impressionable minds in the public.

Undaunted by the censorship, Josephine continued to study and to write and to think. She made revisions to her to book when she could and posted the addenda to the few copies of her book in nearby monasteries.

At her end, Josephine was satisfied with her accomplishments and her journey though she would die with little to no recognition for her life’s work.

The monk who prepared her body for burial was surprised to discover that she was a woman. He maintained the secret within the monastery as the monsignor did, deciding that the dead are entitled to privacy.