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.
I belong to a welcoming church in downtown Portland, Maine led by a socially conscious minister who unflinchingly embraces difficult issues. Last Sunday, she took to the pulpit to voice her outrage at the inhumane treatment of imprisoned migrant children. I was surrounded by rapt, concerned faces, many visibly moved, but once the service was [...]
Pat Taub
Horrible News Week This week has been one where I’ve been royally challenged by all the depressing news: the Supremes’ Ruling to allow gerrymandering to proceed is a major blow to free elections; the horrific stories of migrant kids in concentration camps being denied medical care, soap, toothbrushes, outdoor exercise, etc.; Pelosi’s [...]
Pat Taub
Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking new book, The Apology opens with these words: I am done waiting. My father is long dead. He will never say the words to me. He will not make the apology. So it must be imagined. For it is in our imagination that we can dream across boundaries, deepen the narrative, and design alternative outcomes. Ensler [...]
Pat Taub
* Carly Simon, “Legend in Your Own Time” GUEST POST by ANNE PENWAY This was not supposed to happen. Not when it did. I expected my midlife would include caregiving for my parents. And it did. I was the first responder to gradually escalating parental health crises for sixteen years. I expected to outlive my husband. Most women do. The [...]
Pat Taub
Maine Initiatives Last night I attended the annual cocktail party/award gathering of Maine Initiatives, founded in 1993 to fund grassroots and community-based organizations working for peace and justice. It was wonderful to see a huge crowd that was both multi-racial and multi-ages. It gave me hope to see such an outpouring of Mainers [...]
Pat Taub
Growing up before iPhones and the Internet were around, books were central to my life. Summers free of school meant I could read non-stop. When I read I could forget about my teenage insecurities, losing myself in Jane Austen’s world, the clever shenanigans of Hercule Poirot, or steamy sex scenes when I confiscated my father’s John O’Hara’s [...]
Pat Taub
Family News Last weekend I traveled to Chicago for my grandson’s 8thgrade graduation. Max lives with his older sister, Jane, 15 and parents in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. As the saying goes, time flies by. I have vivid memories of Max’s birth 14 years ago this August. It was bittersweet because it was the same month Hurricane Katrina [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by NANCY RULLO The model slipped her robe off and slid into a pose elongating her legs, torso, neck and arms. During the one-minute pose, artists moved charcoal across large sketchpads. I watched Judy’s hand translating the model onto the page in confident strokes. The thin charcoal in my hand broke in half; my sketch [...]
Pat Taub
I’m devoting this week’s “Short Takes” to events and sightings from my Memorial Day weekend in New York City. RBG Strolling in the Village I spotted this storefront hand-painted image of the wonderful RBG or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our formidable Supreme Court Justice. She has become a national icon. Stonewall Memorial Park In [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by TONI KIEF The day I turned sixty I collided with a shocking revelation. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up! I was single again, living alone and on my way to meet my women friends for vodka and cake. The thought wouldn’t stop; it kept repeating. I drove to the party, and took inventory. At eleven I wanted [...]
Pat Taub