If you’re casting about for a way to take the edge off Trump’s wrecking ball, I heartily recommend the uplifting powers of a great...
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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
Learning a Different Voice: Feminism for Males
by Ed Mooney, guest blogger In my 20’s and 30’s, feminism seemed to open the door to reflections about being a male. It was the early seventies. Wanting to be close to the action, my wife and young son and I moved to Berkeley. It was a period of social upheaval and political violence marked by the Civil Rights struggle and the Free Speech, [...]
Pat Taub