When I think about what has made my life meaningful, it’s come from those experiences where I woke up. Events that rocked my world...
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.
A Thumbs Up for “Transparent,” a new Amazon Prime Series
My favorite part of winter in Maine is the excuse to hibernate, make soup, dig into my pile of unread books, and, best of all, binge on online shows, which is how I kicked in the New Year. After reading rave reviews of “Transparent” in The New Yorker, I decided to give it a chance. I was instantly smitten with this new Amazon Prime series [...]
Pat Taub
Book Review: Vivian Gornick, “The Odd Woman and the City” (An Older Woman’s Life Review)
This Christmas I received the new memoir by Vivian Gornick, The Odd Woman and the City. (The city in question is Manhattan.) It’s a book I’ve been eager to read, being a Gornick fan of many years. I read the young Gornick when she wrote for The Village Voice, documenting fiery protests of Second Wave Feminists. Later I read her mother-daughter [...]
Pat Taub
Spread Holiday Good Will by Doing Your Part to End Islamophobia
Every Christmas since I was a child I’ve been told that this is the season to practice good will by loving my neighbors, giving to the less fortunate, and being grateful for what I have. This year it doesn’t feel sufficient to be a “Secret Santa,” or to open my heart to heal difficult relations with family members. The almost daily [...]
Pat Taub
Remembering My Mother
On December 15, 2000, fifteen years ago today, my mother, Jane Conrad First, died. She was one month short of her 83rd birthday. I’ve had an incredible post-mother journey. When Jane left this world, I was still holding anger and resentment towards her. I didn’t show this side of myself to the outside world because, like many people, [...]
Pat Taub
What To Do When the Holiday Blues Strike
If you’re an older woman who lives alone; if your family is scattered far and wide; if you recently lost a partner or spouse; if you have limited mobility due to income or health concerns, you might dread the winter holidays, feeling like they’re a curse since they tend to magnify your isolation. To add to your holiday blues, you might [...]
Pat Taub
Don’t Peg Me as Your Run-of-the-Mill Old Lady
In 2015 older women (and men) are redefining old age, embracing it as a complex, even rich period in our lives. We rail against the prevailing stereotypes of the bent-over elderly person hobbling along with a cane or a disgruntled old bag. We are a diverse group, reflecting a wide range of older adults. While I fit the cultural stereotype [...]
Pat Taub
Practicing Gratitude in Crazy Times
With Thanksgiving approaching, if you’re like me, you’re consumed with cooking, hosting family, or traveling, making it easy to overlook that this is when we’re supposed to be thankful for our blessings. Living in such crazy times, where terrorist attacks occur with greater frequency, and where wars are off the charts and when many of [...]
Pat Taub
Madeleines: a Must-See Play by Bess Welden
If you live in or near Portland, Maine, and you’re a woman who struggles in relationship with her mother and/or sister (that’s almost every woman I know!), you owe it to yourself to see Bess Welden’s riveting new play, Madeleines. You can catch it Thursday through Sunday at Portland Stage’s Studio Theater. Welden boldly tackles universal [...]
Pat Taub
Managing Loss on a Personal and Global Level
For me, the absolute worst aspect of aging is the accumulated losses. Death becomes all too frequent a visitor. Dear friends stricken with cancer or suffering tragic deaths leave me in far greater numbers than when I was younger. And now, there’s the global loss of hundreds of lives in Paris, adding to my almost daily grief for the mounting [...]
Pat Taub
Channeling Emmeline Pankhurst and Susan B. Anthony
Having just seen the excellent new film, “Suffragette,” I found myself wondering what some of the early Suffragettes leaders, like Emmeline Pankhurst of Britain and Susan B. Anthony of the US might have to say about the contemporary feminist movement. I suspected they wouldn’t be too happy with us, and thought I could profit from their [...]
Pat Taub