Lately its been a lot of thought about ladies. Friday night I went up to camp for a reunion of sorts, and Laura, Elena, Ali and I got into a conversation about the mysteries of women. Elena had attended (and marched in) the Women's March in DC this past Sunday, and was still riding high on the power, beauty and general awe that intelligent, assertive women exude, and this spirit set a tone for the night's conversation.
To add to those thoughts, Saturday I attended a bridal shower for my dear and wonderful Michelle, who is remarrying in June, having been widowed almost three years ago at the age of 31. The shower was almost 50 women, which means there were at least 2 or 3 moments of tears (I've noticed when more than 5 women are gathered who are closely connected, within an hour at least one of them will be crying) but they were all tears of immense joy. I was overwhelmed by those in attendance. Ruth S. made a surprise and celebritory appearance, having been sprung from the Oncology ward of Johns Hopkins just to show her support for Michelle. There were three generations of Sullivan children and Barb B. and her mother and son both had a place. Sisters, mothers, daughter-in-laws, neighbors, housemates and friends made up those attending and again I was struck by the mystery of these relationships. Afterward, Hatch and I met up with Jenny and a friend to see '13 Going on 30' (yes I saw it two prior, but I really loved it) and again I was struck by the power of assertive women. Arriving home I found 'Mona Lisa Smile' to be playing on satellite and watched about 3/4 of it.
In every one of these situations, the support that these women had from other women flat out floored me. Be it your peers (as in 'Mona'), your mother (as in '13'), your friends (as Michelle can attest) or 700,000 strangers, in each situation those who stopped to look saw an experience far greater than themselves, because of those who were around them. Let it be known that I am not male bashing by any means; I am woman praising.
Frankly, I love being a woman. I love being friends with women, and I love that thinking like a woman is something that not even women have been able to fully understand. I love that I can be assertive and outspoken and intelligent and societally to object to that is to be prehistoric and brute-ish. I love that the closest thing I've ever come to seeing something magical happen occured when sincere honesty, love and girlfriends ended up in the same place at the same time. I love that we are so diverse, but there are basic, almost unspoken threads of commonality. I am simply mystified by the creation of woman. I may be in with love men--a little too much at times, I'm afraid--but I simply and honestly love women. I do not think there is a thing in this world that a woman could not do, if she made up her mind to do it (short of biological processes) because I think there is little in the world that could ever withstand the made-up mind of a woman. Women are a force of nature--they are as unpredictable as a tornado, as wide-reaching as a hurricane, as spontanious as a tsunami, as hot as a forest fire and as moving as an earthquake.
And how proud and intimidated I am to identify myself with such demigoddesses.
