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.
For me, good summer reads are books driven by immensely likeable characters and a great story. In this vein, I’m offering some of my recommendations for books you may find so engrossing that you’ll take them into the shower, before you realize what you’ve done! At the top of my list is A Manuel for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. This [...]
Pat Taub
I’m writing about forgiveness this week after participating in a rich conversation on the WOW Facebook page following a posting advocating forgiveness. This conversation put my brain in overdrive, compelling me to elaborate on forgiveness, as I understand it. Forgiveness can be especially meaningful late in life. This is the time to wipe [...]
Pat Taub
There’s nothing quite like the first time you hold a grandchild, experiencing the miracle of your son or daughter now having his or her own child. The baby looking back at you seems like a divine gift. And it is, but as time goes on and you settle into being a grandmother, the relationship gets more complicated. You watch your adult child [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend I visited family in Chicago, home of the famed Steppenwolf Theater, which has birthed numerous Broadway plays. My daughter-in-law treated me to a Steppenwolf matinee to see the trial opening of Tracey Letts’ new play, Mary Page Marlowe. It depicts the major events in an older women’s life: collegiate dreams to visit [...]
Pat Taub
The conversation continues and gets a bit more serious as Connie and Adelaide discuss death, making preparations to remain in their own homes, while offering more examples of the gifts of aging. Pat: Continuing on the theme of mystery, death strikes me as full of mystery. How do you conceive of death? Adelaide: My image of death [...]
Pat Taub
We talk all the time: to our neighbors as we pass them in the morning, on the phone to family members at long distance, or over a meal with friends. Most of our conversations are pleasant, but rarely do they jar us, make us see the world differently and touch our souls. But every now and then, if we’re lucky, we have the chance to engage [...]
Pat Taub
As Bette Davis reminds us, “Aging isn’t for sissies.” To embrace aging fearlessly is indeed a bold act. We all know the importance of diet and exercise, having a sense of purpose and building close, nurturing relationships, but sometimes we don’t pay enough attention to developing a sense of humor around the demands of aging. I‘m [...]
Pat Taub
Given the fact that the United States has the most aggressive military presence on the planet, with 662 military bases in 38 foreign countries, peace work couldn’t be more important. A good way to pump some new life into the peace movement is for women to reinvigorate their commitment to it. I can’t think of a better way to start than [...]
Pat Taub
Aging has brought a renewed interest in the spiritual questions I grappled with during my late night college bull sessions. Is there a God? Can prayer make a difference in one’s life? What is my spiritual path? In my middle years I was too busy raising children and building a career to grapple with meaning of life questions with the intensity [...]
Pat Taub
I have never witnessed anything quite like it: the adverse, often combative reactions many older women have to the label of “old woman.” In my classes, “Women and Aging,” when I suggest that we adopt with pride the label “old woman” to counter the negative images of the aging woman, invariably most of the class will adamantly resist–this [...]
Pat Taub