“Oh no!” Ruth said, raising her hands. “There was no need to. Unlike today, no one group was trying to dominate or subjugate the other. Rather, men and women respected and honored each other and participated equally in all aspects of life. The focus of their communities, therefore, was to collaborate and cooperate—enabling all to thrive and raise their children in peace.”

“Does that mean that daughters were as valuable as sons?” Anna asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Of course!” Ruth chimed. “When one lives according to The Way, all children are cherished and encouraged to flourish.”

Anna drew back, unable to believe her ears. “Then why did things change? And become so different?” she demanded.

Ruth closed her eyes above a smile and thought for a moment.

“Let me first tell you another story,” she said. Anna refolded her legs and listened with eagerness. “When Susana and her twin, Zahra, and their younger sister, Maya, were growing up, they lived on the outskirts of a village with their mother. Orpah, as they called her, was a widely acclaimed healer, just as her mother had been before her, and her mother’s mother, and so on.

“Stories abounded of Orpah’s vast wisdom, and the circle of respect for her was wide. Her three daughters accompanied her everywhere, and it was under her influence that they imbibed knowledge of The Way.”

Anna tried to imagine the young daughters shadowing their mother. She had never thought of Zahra, or Mother Susana, as having once been girls.

“But by the second half of her life, Orpah had grown concerned,” Ruth continued. “In her many travels, she had learned of a fledgling but potent movement to degrade the inherent sanctity of life, and the female, and instead to instill a thirst for domination and warfare, and the hoarding of material possessions, thereby closing people’s hearts to The Way.”

“But why?” Anna asked.

Ruth shook her head. “Fear. Greed. Envy. An empty need to control. And a misunderstanding of the nature of true power.”

“What do you mean? By who?”

“It was a small group at first. Men from the outskirts of the community who, for whatever reason, lost their sense of gratitude and purpose. Instead of respecting themselves and others and participating in the communal life, they began to steal.”

“Steal what?”

“Food. Shelter. Women. Children.” Ruth winced. “They came to see how much easier it was to take rather than create. And their appetite soon grew beyond them.”

“So what happened?”

Ruth shrugged. “When the communities became tired of the thievery and tried to protect what they cherished, the men attacked.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “But why did the people of The Way not join together to stop them?”