I was wondering and wrote about it
Could be worse. You could be facing two years hiding away followed up by imprisonment and eventual death. That is what happened to Anne Frank. Isn’t your plight much better?
With the library closed, you can get the entire text from the Internet Archive, Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl
This comes to you from Susan Otcenas as she muses on what her mother taught her.
When I was a child, I was raised to believe women could do and be whatever they wanted. My mom went to college and became a chemist when I was in middle school. It seemed a given that my sisters and I would go to college. And we did. We started businesses; one a restaurant, another an exercise physiology practice, and me an apparel company. Of the 4 of us, only 2 had children.
In short, it seemed to me that our generation (we are aged 44-57) could have limitless possibilities. We wouldn’t be bound by traditions and expectations about what women should be or do, or how we should present ourselves. And it seemed to me unthinkable that despite evidence to the contrary, women would be elected to the highest offices in the country, as they have been in nearly every other first world democracy. It was just a matter of time.
And yet, here we are. I’m 50 years old and a woman has held neither the presidency nor the vice presidency. Arguably the brightest, most experienced, well-spoken, best prepared and most thoughtful candidate has now been forced out of the race. And our “choice” in the next election will come down to voting for a straight white male septuagenarian (the shouting magical thinker with a weak ticker or the bumbling stumbling handsy guy with a weak mind) over the demented immoral incompetent straight white male septuagenarian currently occupying the space.
And so, at 50 years old, I’ve resigned myself to what I’ve known in my heart all along; we women have been sold a lie. And that too many of our “sisters” are complicit in perpetuating the status quo. Apparently strong, smart capable women will be allowed only so much leeway before we tear them down for being too strong, too smart, too capable. Elizabeth Warren’s story is one that every strong smart capable woman understands. How hard it is to maintain a balance and a public demeanor that doesn’t appear too “overbearing”, too “strident”, too “bossy”, while still needing to get (and getting) shit done.
I’m tired. And discouraged.
Consider this before you cast your next vote.
After 20 years in captivity, a loggerhead turtle was released into the sea. She thrived. She swam from Cape Town, South Africa to Australia, her birthplace.
Twenty years ago, “Yoshi arrived at Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium after crew on a Japanese fishing boat found her with a damaged shell.” This was a bigger project for Two Oceans Aquarium. It had only been open for a couple of years. They took on the turtle and kept her. They learned enough that they took on other turtles to rehabilitate.
Well, read the rest here. It’s fascinating.
Unanswered it how the turtle knew where to go. How to communicate with other turtles. They did “train” her to swim longer distances and she ended up spending year or so in the area. But then she took off for Australia.
Because they shelter other animals in their burrows. This means survival to Australians. Read about it here.
There are people that do amazing things. Like “racing” from San Franciso to Portland, route chosen by the rider. Like eating from his garden and what he could forage for a year. Like a team of six guys taking a raft trip to prove Kon Tiki could go from South America to Polynesia. Today I’ve run across a new person doing something incredible, walking the Pacific Crest Trail, starting when he was 400 pounds.
Yes, 400 pounds. He felt he needed to do something to get his life back in control. Here are a few selected videos for you to find out for yourself.
There are 95 videos including lots of adventures. He never did hit his goal of 200-pound loss. Instead, he hiked the entire PCT at 300 pounds or more. That is epic.