Right speech is not just truthful speech. It is timely, kind, gentle, and useful. Most of what we say fails one of these tests. The remedy is not to speak more carefully but to listen more deeply. Speech that comes from listening is naturally right.
I have lived as a siladhara — a ten-precept nun — for thirty-five years. The status questions, the structural questions, the future of women in the Theravada — these remain unresolved and they matter. But none of them have ever once stopped me from sitting. The practice does not wait for the structure.
Non-harming begins with the housefly. If you cannot let the fly out the window without irritation, the cosmic compassion talks are premature. Start small. The Buddha did.