Wake of Echoes

A few of Mom's labels My mom has Alzheimer's disease and we're losing her too quickly.  What began as basic forgetfulness has changed too quickly over the years since her diagnosis. We enjoy moments of clarity with Mom, but other times she doesn't know our names or our faces. She can no longer hold a pencil, cook a meal or read a book. We know that time will soon gobble up what is left of her memories. It is a heartbreaking thing to experience, as many of you know. But long before Mom began to lose her memory, she started labeling things in her house. She wrote dates on the back of photos, saved letters and drawings from her kids and grandkids with Post-It notes on the back: "love this!" or "Drew, age 3." She kept report cards and concert programs, circling our names, commenting on what we sang or what our teachers said about us. She kept a Thanksgiving journal: how big the turkey was and how much she paid for it, what the weather was like, wh...

In the era of #metoo and #genderequality, the subject of marginalized women comes up frequently -- even more so this week after Frances McDormand's Oscar speech on Sunday and International Women's Day on Thursday...  I am glad that women are taking advantage of this opportunity to tell our stories, to climb toward success and to (hopefully) bring other women along with us. And even if some of the hoopla feels a bit bandwagonish (Just imagine: if Roman Polanski or Woody Allen had been unfortunate enough to have their scandals while #metoo was trending, they might not have had famous actresses coming so quickly to their defense, but I digress) I think open dialogue about these issues is always best. TRUTH, after all, will resonate in a few hearts before the spin doctors rush in to obfuscate it with their analysis and monochrome arguments. (Or before they turn #truth into #mytruth and #yourtruth.) That's why I want to draw your attention to four groups of women w...