Initially my plan in interviewing Penny Rosenwasser, a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, was to highlight the work...
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Positive in My 70’s
As another birthday approaches I have basically two choices: to agonize over my advancing age OR to look at the glass as half full and take stock of what is positive about being in my seventies. While there are unwelcome aspects to aging, like diminished energy and physical agility, sleep problems and occasionally missing a companion, I refuse [...]
Pat Taub
A Good Read, Thanksgiving Pies & More
A Touching Memoir This week I zipped through Joyce Maynard’s just-published memoir, The Best of Us. It’s about her brief, loving marriage, which ended abruptly when her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died a year after the diagnosis and only three years after he and Joyce were married. Her honest, deeply moving story gave [...]
Pat Taub
The Unbearable Suffering of Palestinian Mothers
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about a YouTube video I watched over the weekend, “How to be a Palestinian Supermom.” It features the Palestinian mother Manal Tamimi, describing her determination to provide a loving home for her children in the face of unrelenting Israeli oppression. Like most Palestinian mothers Manal never knows [...]
Pat Taub
My Grandson’s Birthday, Nocturnal City Walks & A WOW Muse
My Grandson’s Birthday Today my grandson Max celebrates his 12th birthday. I always associate Max with Katrina because he was born a few days before the flood walls broke in New Orleans turning this beautiful city into a nightmare for its African American citizens. While caring for Max, my daughter-in-law and I were glued to the television [...]
Pat Taub
Charlottesville, A Visit from My Brother & “Citizen”
Reacting to Charlottesville Like most of you, I’ve been preoccupied with last weekend’s ugly white supremacy rallies in Charlottesville. I’ve been doing what I can to raise my voice in protest. I led a discussion at my Portland church (the United Church of Christ) last Sunday. We’re formulating a plan to offer the church for community [...]
Pat Taub
Parenting Adult Children
by Lisa Savage, Guest Blogger One of the rites of passage for an elder mom is when her children become full-fledged adults. Do they still need our nurturing? What’s the best way for a mom of adults to transition to offering support that both meets her need to nurture and her grown child’s need to be acknowledged as capable? Things have [...]
Pat Taub
Sisters-in-Law, Hats, A New Park & Iceland Bound
Thinking of My Sister-in-Law I have great respect for Phyllis, my sister-in-law, who has been a lifelong activist for peace and justice. In the past three years she has suffered three hard deaths: her husband, her beloved brother, and her ex-husband, the father of her two children. I will hold Phyllis in the light this weekend as she marks [...]
Pat Taub
A Daughter-in-Law’s Take on Mothers-in-Law
by Edwige Charlot, Guest Blogger This post is a response to “Why Do Mothers-in-Law Get A Bad Rap?” published on WOW on June 20th . From my time as the girlfriend, I knew that if my then boyfriend and I ever got married I’d be marrying into his family. By the time we were engaged, I was already well versed in the mother- in-law [...]
Pat Taub
Women’s Friendships, Beatrix at Dinner & Avocado Toast
The Magic of Women’s Friendships As I age I increasingly value my close female friendships. It’s comforting to grow old with women who can resonate with the challenges of aging and the settling in that accompanies it. I was reminded of the vitality of women’s friendships when I spotted these two old friends in animated discussion over [...]
Pat Taub
Why Do Mothers-in-Law Get a Bad Rap?
“A mother-in-law should be blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.” —Armenian proverb Without going to this extreme, many contemporary mothers-in-law make conscious efforts to monitor their behavior, but often to no avail. Once a woman becomes a mother-in-law she’s typically the butt of mother-in-law jokes and pejorative labels. [...]
Pat Taub