I’ve chosen trailblazers in literature, music, painting, political activism and medicine. Many communities lost their own notable...
Learning to be Positive in Hard Times
I wake up most mornings vowing to be positive, but it’s hard to maintain a positive mindset when it’s bitter cold out, eliminating a walk, and when contacts with friends and family are relegated to phone calls and Zoom. The longing for in-person contacts sends my positive intentions out the window. It became clear that I needed an approach [...]
Pat Taub
Last Things, New Beginnings
GUEST POST by BARBARA BENGELS Do you remember what you were doing (or planning to do) when Covid shut down the world as we knew it? Were you teaching a class, standing in line at the supermarket, planning on seeing a play? Those were my plans; they’re still undone. How do we respond when taken-for-granted opportunities vanish? Well, [...]
Pat Taub
Rashid Tlaib, Carey Mulligan, Bernie Meme, a New Mask & More!
Rashid Tlaib Yesterday Rashida Tlaib, US Representative from Michigan, delivered a teary speech on the House floor, describing how she has been besieged with anti-Muslim hate mail and threats from her very first day in office. While she wasn’t at Congress during the January 6th coup, she felt traumatized by it, fearing she would have been [...]
Pat Taub
Women’s Circles That Transformed My Life
A recent Facebook posting described how elephants form a protective circle around an elephant giving birth, started me thinking about the women’s circles that have supported me and transformed my life. One circle that looms from the ‘70s was the one that accompanied the birth of my first child. David was born at a time when women were [...]
Pat Taub
RIP Cicely Tyson, Vaccine, Sundance Film Festival & More!
Cicely Tyson Cicely Tyson, one of the greatest actresses of all time, died on January 28th at the age of 96. She refused to take parts that demeaned Black people and won a Tony, Emmys and, at 93, an honorary Oscar. I will always remember Cicely for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman about a woman born into slavery, who lived to join [...]
Pat Taub
A Reading List for Riding Out Covid
While many of us have been reading more during the lockdown, if you’re like me, you always welcome book recommendations. Here are some of my favorite recent reads. They range from the serious to the spellbinding to the hilarious, with a cookbook thrown in for good measure. Race Relations in the US: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson Wilkerson [...]
Pat Taub
Trump Exits & Biden Enters, Amanda Gorman, Remembering my Mother & More!
Trump FINALLY exits! I breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, as Trump flew off to Mar a Lago and Biden took the oath of office. His speech for unity was critical, but words alone won’t unify us. If the Biden administration can lift people out of poverty through a generous stimulus plan, health care for all, and a jobs program, than [...]
Pat Taub
Contemporary Suffragettes to the Rescue!
As inauguration day approaches, many of us are on pins and needles, worried that the Ultra Right that staged the Capital insurrection will create more violence when Biden is inaugurated. Washington resembles a third world country with 20,000 National Guard members everywhere the eye can see, and the White House newly cordoned off with metal [...]
Pat Taub
Lisa Montgomery, Home Altar, “Suffragette” & More!
Lisa Montgomery A story that got lost in last week’s horrific storming of the capital is that of Lisa Montgomery, the first woman prisoner executed since 1952. Montgomery was imprisoned for a horrific murder that has been attributed to the extreme sexual and physical abuse she endured growing up. Serendipitously, I had just finished the [...]
Pat Taub
Inspiration from 2020 WOW Guest Bloggers
While 2020 saw most of us grumbling over our Covid isolation, others found silver linings in their alone time. Lucky for us they churned out guest posts chock full of wisdom to live by. A few samples from last year’s WOW guest posts follow: Sally Bowden-Schaible* On her trip to Palestine to pick olives, Sally mused over the persistent [...]
Pat Taub