During Women’s History Month, the tendency is to celebrate famous women in the arts and politics, often ignoring those less famous women who have made an indelible impression on our lives. This year I’m celebrating Women’s History Month by sending love notes to family members, neighbors, teachers and others to whom I owe a debt [...]
Pat Taub
“The great challenge . . . is to keep awake the part of you that knows . . . what it means to be alive.” The Marginalian, February, 22, 2026 Trump’s devastating takeover of the federal government has awakened many here and abroad to the perils the U S faces. Authoritarianism merges with fascism at home. Injustice and inequality grow. [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI “We make meaning most readily in times of confusion and despair when life as we know it has ceased to make sense.” ~ Oliver Sacks Watching the chaos and suffering unleashed in this country and abroad by Trump – maniacal narcissistic amoral bullying – and his toadies, despair is my first reaction… fear, [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN I am 73. My white hair, tentative gait, and blue cane say so to others even when I don’t. No one snarls, “Hey, Gramps! Move it!” but even well-meant acts can be ungentle reminders. On New Year’s Eve morning I visited my local supermarket, paid for my groceries, and began to lift a heavy [...]
Pat Taub
Ageism is discrimination against elders because of their age, targeting women more than men. Ageism is a ubiquitous force in a woman’s life, first surfacing in childhood when little girls listen to fairy tales about a mean old witch, personified in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, setting the stage for a lifetime of disparaging older [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend I drove to the mall for holiday gifts. Entering TJ Maxx, I was flabbergasted by the towers of holiday merchandise, which spilled over into the narrow aisles, making for tricky navigation. Overwhelmed by this crass commercialism, I made a few purchases and raced to my car. Back at home, over a cup of tea, I revisited past [...]
Pat Taub
In my wildest dreams I never imagined my elder years would be spent in a Fascist state where our basic rights are disappearing at lightening speed. Feeling depressed and at a loss for overcoming my despair, I remembered, when feeling out of sorts as a girl, my father would affectionately suggest, “Think positively.” Since I’d [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST By LISA SAVAGE In the type of bloated, belligerent rhetoric that is his brand, 47 called a group of six Democratic Party congressmen and women out for “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Their offense: making a video aimed at active-duty military personnel urging them to disobey unlawful orders. Presumably this is in [...]
Pat Taub
I’m not just referring to a kitchen sink loaded with dirty pots and pans and stacks of dinner plates smeared with gravy. The big messy part is family relationships. It’s that time of year when the internet is overrun with articles on how to avoid dinner table conflicts or sparks with combative relatives. What if I suggested that you [...]
Pat Taub
It’s 2050 and my great granddaughter opens my journal to November 16, 2025: Citizens of Gaza are trapped in water-soaked makeshift tents. Shivering children wade in mud up to their knees; their mothers wail, “This is worse than death.” There are few men left. I’m consumed with worry that these children will freeze to death as Israel [...]
Pat Taub