WOW: Women's Older Wisdom
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December 2024
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Feminism10

Women Who Restore My Faith in Humanity

Last Friday I attended a memorial service for 96-year-old Joanne Booth, who never failed to brighten my day when we met up. Joanne’s infectious, slightly mischievous smile, was contagious, as was her love of life.  As I listened to her four daughters deliver their warm, loving accounts of their mother’s full life, my mind wandered to [...]

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Ageism is Real!

Ageism, defined as discrimination against the older adult, is very real in the lives of many, if not most, American women. The older woman loses her currency for no other reason than she looks her age. At work, her suggestions are frequently rejected; socially she is shunned because she no longer looks young; her adult children consider her [...]

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The Mother-in-Law Curse

When my oldest son became engaged, a luncheon was arranged to introduce me to his finance’s family. When I glanced around the table, I caught my future daughter-in-law’s sisters scrutinizing me.  I experienced the uncomfortable sensation that I was being sized-up to determine the extent to which I’d be a problematic mother-in-law. I [...]

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Celebrating Women’s Home Altars

Archaeologists have found traces of women’s home altars as early as 8000 BC. They pop up in the goddess civilization of Minoan Crete, during the Roman Empire, and sporadically in European, African, and Asian history. But in the US, the popularity of women’s home altars is a recent development. The women’s spirituality movement, which [...]

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The Strong Woman Trap

A neighbor, an elderly woman, who’s been through the mill caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s is referred to as a “strong woman.”  I know several Maine women, well into their ‘70’s and ‘80’s, who have carved out self-sufficient rural lifestyles, including chopping their own firewood. They too are called “strong women.”  [...]

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A Grandmother’s Agony

I gaze at my beautiful grandchildren, Jane and Max, taking in their vitality, humor, and intelligence.  My loving admiration turns to grief when I consider the future that awaits them: an overheated planet, storms of Biblical proportions, polluted drinking waters, deadly viruses and more. As I sit with my grief for the world Jane and Max [...]

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Resetting My Life

Saturday morning, NPR was playing in the background while I rummaged in my refrigerator for something to eat for breakfast. I wasn’t paying much attention until the program played an interview with Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University, who, for the past two years, was part of the Covid research effort. When [...]

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Thank You’s I Never Got to Say

Poet Victoria Chang’s new book, “Dear Memory,” consists of letters to her deceased parents, asking them questions that have plagued her about her Chinese ancestry. Chang started me thinking about my own incomplete conversations with deceased relatives and close friends. I decided to write my own letters to the dearly departed, but with [...]

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Combatting Loneliness

“I hate coming home to an empty house.  The silence can be deafening.”  “I can go days without speaking to anyone except the clerk in the grocery store or my mail carrier.”  “I rarely reach out to my friends when I’m feeling lonely because I’m too embarrassed to admit I’m lonely.”  “My adult daughter tells me to [...]

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