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May I introduce you to Madame Germaine de Staël?

May I introduce you to Madame Germaine de Staël?

            Who would not want to meet a woman born in 1766, who lived until 1817, who not only survived the French Revolution,  and who Napoleon Bonaparte repeatedly sent into exile! At a dinner party, Madame Germaine de Stael proclaimed, “Ought not every woman, like every man, to follow the bent of her own talents?” Her familynurtured her formation of opinions such as this from a young age.…

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Introducing Bella Savitzky Abzug

Introducing Bella Savitzky Abzug

Ah, my friends, if you don’t know her, or know about her, let me introduce you to Bella Abzug.  The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about her is ‘hats.’   Before Madeleine Albright claimed pins/ brooches as her signature wardrobe statement piece, Bella Abzug flaunted her hats, “I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before…

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Meet Anne Bradstreet Poet of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Meet Anne Bradstreet Poet of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

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It is Women's History Month: Celebrating Anna Maria van Schurman, a Strong Women

It is Women’s History Month: Celebrating Anna Maria van Schurman, a Strong Women

Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was a philosopher and a Dutch polymath. She spoke more than a dozen ancient and modern languages when women were officially excluded from colleges, universities and intellectual academies, when women were rarely given any formal education at all. That her genius was recognized is all the more remarkable. She was neither a traditional Aristotelian philosopher…

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What I learned from Angela Davis

What I learned from Angela Davis

Angela Davis Angela Davis used to scare me, or maybe it was that she intimidated me. But that is probably not saying as much as it looks like, because there was a time (a long time) in my life when most people intimidated me. Why is a whole other story, more self-confessional than I want to get into here. But I think I’ve mostly grown beyond that now. But Angela Davis. She really is…

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A Message from Amelia Earhart to the Women of the Future

A Message from Amelia Earhart to the Women of the Future

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A message from the Amazons to the Women of the Future

A message from the Amazons to the Women of the Future

Dear Women of the Future, We are Penthesilea and Hippolyta. We are Andromache and Antiope. You know us as queens and ruthless warriors. You know us wrongly. Those who control the present have rewritten the past to suit their wants and needs. We are the Mothers. We are a nation of women. We are leaders. We are healers. We are creators. We are weavers and potters. We farm and tend our herds. We…

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A message from Alice Paul to the women of the future

A message from Alice Paul to the women of the future

Dear Women of the Future, Wake up girls! There is too much at risk to be napping or resting on our laurels!! Do you not realize how much we who went before you have sacrificed? Do you not realize how long and hard we labored to build the foundations for women’s rights upon which you now stand? But wait, this is not the tone I intended to take. I do not mean to be a shrew or a nagging elder, but…

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A message from Abigail Adams to the women of the future

A message from Abigail Adams to the women of the future

Perhaps you will remember me as the wife of the second president of the newly formed United States of America. I would rather you knew me as I was, a woman who thought deeply and who acted with care. The times of my life placed many limits on the actions and engagements of women. But I believe the women of my time stretched and strained those limits to the best of our abilities. Our times were…

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Stages

I just finished reading The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George.  If you haven’t read it yet, stop what you are doing, get a copy of the book, sit down and start reading it.  Read it to savor it, like a fine wine. Yes, it will break your heart. Yes, it will frustrate you. But, oh, it will open your heart and invite you to breathe — TO BREATHE deeply — to inhale like your life depended on it, to…

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on how I want to be famous

on how I want to be famous

I was listening to the audio book version of a book that promised it was about mercy. The first word I heard was ‘famous.’  I was not happy. I don’t give a flying fig newton about being famous. Especially now that I am retired.  But I was walking on the treadmill, so I kept on listening. Finally I heard these lines:

I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, sticky…

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On Life

    From Rilke’s Book of Hours, Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I give myself to it.

  I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I’ve been circling for thousands of years

And I still don’t know: am I a falcon,

A storm, or a great song?

I love this poem. It just opens my…

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In memory of Amjad Farid Sabri

In memory of Amjad Farid Sabri

In the beginning, in the lands of southern Asia, there were the Riwat peoples. That seems to be as far back as we know. In the north of Pakistan there is evidence of a Paleolithic site, the Riwat, where people lived at least 45,000 years ago. That is a long time for threads of something like civilization to weave.

Over time the land came to be called India which at times included what we now know…

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God and the Professor’s Brain

God and the Professor’s Brain

I found this story on People for Others, Paul Brian Campbell’s blog. While I have not spend inordinate amounts of time pondering the link between God and college professors’ brains, this story shines a nice light on the parallels . . . illuminating, I think!

Enjoy.

A college student was in a philosophy class, where there was a class discussion about whether or not God exists, the professor had…

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On Pauli Murray’s Dark Testament

On Pauli Murray’s Dark Testament

I’ve been reading Patricia Bell-Scott’s “The Firebrand and the First Lady” which is about the friendship between Pauli Murray and Eleanor Roosevelt, Murray being the Firebrand, Roosevelt being the First Lady. Throughout the book Murray’s poem, “Dark Testament” is mentioned several times. Of course I had to go find it. And yes, as I read it I found myself struggling to catch my breath.  Have a…

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Of the Many Ways Confession Can be Good for You

Of the Many Ways Confession Can be Good for You

This comes from facebook, but it really is too funny not to share … along the lines of things are never quite what they seem to be ….

‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl.’

The priest asks, “Is that you, little Joey Pagano?”

‘Yes, Father, it is.’

“And who was the girl you were with?”

‘I can’t tell you, Father, I don’t want to ruin her reputation.’

“Well, Joey, I’m…

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Problems of the Heart

Problems of the Heart

A visitor to an insane asylum found one of the inmates rocking back and forth in a chair cooing repeatedly in a soft, contented manner, “Lulu, Lulu…”

“What’s this man’s problem?” he asked the doctor.

“Lulu. She was a woman who jilted him,” was the doctor’s reply.

As they proceeded on the tour, they came to a padded cell whose occupant was banging his head repeatedly against the wall and moaning,…

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