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.
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Thanksgiving 2020 will be unlike any we’ve known, somewhere between weird and desolate. The CDC urges us to stay at home and skip family gatherings, which means that many will feel isolated. Zoom is a useful prosthesis, but Aunt Mildred can’t pass the biscuits through cyberspace. It may be [...]
Pat Taub
“The Crown” This week I binged on season 4 of Netflix’s “The Crown.” I thought it was the best season yet. Standout performances included Olivia Coleman as Elizabeth and Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher. It was almost eerie the way Emma Corrin captured Diana with the same shy tilt of the head, wearing clothes that were exact [...]
Pat Taub
Just when we were getting Covid under control, overnight the infection rates skyrocketed. With every state setting infection records, we all know what that means: another lockdown coming our way. Now that I’ve been through one lockdown, what have I learned to make the second one bearable? Experience has taught me to accept my erratic Covid [...]
Pat Taub
Nervously I opened my aging report card. I earned respectful grades for healthy living, close relationships and meaningful pursuits, but a low grade for managing my regrets. No surprise. I tend to resemble Lady Macbeth uttering “Out damned spot!” In my case, it’s regrets that I can’t rub out rather than blood. I’m haunted over screaming [...]
Pat Taub
Election Insanity Thanks to the Goddess that the Presidential election will soon be resolved, as the ballots from Pennsylvania and other battle ground states are expected to be counted very soon. Now we have to wait and see if Trump accepts the results. If not, I’m prepared to join any peaceful protests that ensue. A Biden win doesn’t [...]
Pat Taub
As I write this, it’s Election Day. I set my alarm for 6:15 in order to be at my polling place when the doors opened at 7 am, anticipating a quick in-and-out. Instead I waited for over an hour in the cold, flanked by young voters. While I’m hugely relieved to see the end of a nerve-wracking campaign season, I’m on pins and needles [...]
Pat Taub
Lisa Savage My pre-election jitters are bonkers, making me very grateful that the end is in sight. Just four days to go! I hate being boxed into the “lesser of two evils” choices. My preferred candidate was Bernie, but I will vote for Biden, because Trump is truly evil. All is not lost: one vote I can happily make is casting my [...]
Pat Taub
With Halloween right around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the origin of witches, and to understand how the village wise woman was turned into a representation of evil, becoming a “witch.” We have to travel back to the 1500’s in Western Europe, when women healers and midwives played a central role in village after [...]
Pat Taub
Lee Sharkey This week Mainers mourned the passing of Lee Sharkey, 75, a beloved Maine poet and peace activist. I got to know Lee after she and her husband gave up their country space for easier living in Portland. Her accomplishments were many: she was a co-founder of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, co-editor of the influential [...]
Pat Taub
This week I’ll be a guest speaker for a Zoom class of older women, addressing what makes for a meaningful aging. For my presentation, I came up with these guidelines for growing into a wise older woman, which I’m sharing here: Honor Your Failures Reframe your “failures” as risks you took where you stuck your neck out. Examine [...]
Pat Taub