WOW: Women's Older Wisdom
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March 2024
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Pat Taub
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Pat Taub

Pat Taub is a family therapist, writer and activist and life-long feminist. She hopes that WOW will start a conversation among other older women who are fed up with the ageism and sexism in our culture and are looking for cohorts to affirm their value as an older woman.

Competitive Grandparenting

GUEST POST By ANONYMOUS* In a clear sign of the sickness engendered by the long reign of patriarchy in Western culture, grandparenting is now seen as a competitive rather than collaborative endeavor. Despite research confirming the long-held notion that children with at least one grandmother alive are far more likely to thrive than those without [...]

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The Real Story of Witches

The saying, “History is written by the winners, “ applies to the story we’ve been told about witches as ugly, evil creatures.  Since today is Halloween, it’s the perfect time to set the record straight on witches. We have to travel back to the 1500’s in Western Europe, when women healers and midwives played a central role in village [...]

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Give Peace A Chance

In our war-torn universe I long for the world to embrace John Lennon’s famous lyrics, “Give peace a chance.” But peace is off the table when it comes to Gaza, whose homes, hospitals, and schools are being bombed around the clock, drawing comparisons to the fire-bombing of Dresden during WW ll. On top of this, water, food, fuel, and electricity [...]

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My Picks for Fall Reads

Global warming delivered a protracted summer that lasted until this weekend when the temperatures dropped into the autumn range, reminding me it was time to compose the WOW fall reading list. For me, fall reading has to be accompanied by a fire in the fireplace, a cup of Earl Gray and an oversized comfy sweater.   Here are my picks for [...]

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“I Hate Being Old!”

Currently I’m teaching the course, “Women and Aging” at Portland, Maine’s senior college.  The first day, as we went around the room introducing ourselves, one woman defiantly exclaimed,  “I hate being old.  I hate my lined face. I hate not being able to move as well as I once did. I hate being too old to date because men my age [...]

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Autumn Is My New Year

While New Year’s Eve is the traditional time for making resolutions, autumn is my new year.  Autumn’s entry into the darkness of winter beckons me to soul-search and reset my compass for the coming year.  This call is reinforced by having a fall birthday–one I proudly share with Jimmy Carter. This year I decided to do more than [...]

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Letting Go of Regrets

All things considered I’m managing my old age fairly well.   I can check off most of the boxes for health, family, etc., but when it comes to handling my regrets, I’m often stalled. To this day I’m haunted over screaming matches with my teenage sons, impatience with my mother when she was dying, love affairs I allowed to go on way [...]

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Can Radical Empathy Turn the Tide?

I spent the Labor Day weekend at my country retreat in midcoast Maine where I own a cottage on a quiet country road sprinkled with modest homes.  I make a practice of taking daily walks on this road, which I like to think of as my walking meditations.  On Saturday I stopped in my tracks after noticing a flag at a home’s entrance. The words [...]

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