I’ll get these three things about I Can Be President Barbie off my chest:
It bums me out that the glass ceiling extends here: aspiring-President Barbie costs less than the glittery, trendy Barbies. She’s like grape nuts of Barbie: good-for-you—and discounted, too.
While a red outfit might be a little too Sarah Palin 2008, the pink hue… I just don’t think a serious Presidential candidate would don pink as her signature color.
Our most likely (at the moment, in the theoretical hot airwaves days following the Obama reelection in 2012) is Hillary. She’s… not a brunette.
Maybe the reason I tell you all of this—besides the fact that I’m in a minor wrestling match with myself over Saskia’s holiday wish… yes, Barbie and probably not I Can Be President Barbie, either—is that in so many ways this week I’ve been thinking about women, as politicians, as vulnerable, as strong, and as creative creatures. So, I’ll share three things to illustrate that.
I point out to you this very important piece about how for women and children in poverty the “fiscal cliff” isn’t theoretical; it’s life. Bonus link here to this flickr thread about why people give to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Women are funny, even when the situation is poignant. To wit, this remembrance of the last time he saw Gilda Radner by Bill Murray.
Finally, we had our fabulous craft show at our house on Sunday, where women’s creativity was celebrated by virtue of our artists (overwhelmingly female but not exclusively). The event was super fun; the place was hopping. I find myself thinking about how creative life evolves as it meets the workplace and the marketplace (hmm, maybe because I’m confronting these issues in my own work life)—how you can launch as a jeweler (Liz Ryan hasn’t been doing this all that long) or a potter (Lucy Fagella exemplifies the best things about studio potters, including the fact that so many beautiful things she makes are of use, even of service), and a producer of skirts that vault the wearer into hipness (that’d be Caitlin Bosco’s Jupiter Girl skirts).
Three things I just heart heart heart today: the fact that at our craft show, the youngest person selling work (rings, earrings) was ten, and that we carved out space not only for the accomplished people I highlighted above, but for people’s maiden voyages selling their wonderfully crafted wares. I might add that the four year-old-son, Ezra, of the Tea Guys (a guy and a gal; colloquialism guys in this case) served people tea. And that the best line of my entire day came perusing Lucy’s table with my pal Maisy, who’s a first grader. She explained to me how she prefers “plain” things and is especially into the white pieces. We examined the buttons. “You must like these, because of your name.”
Obviously!
I also loved that in the room that afternoon were a woman I babysat for when she was small, our pal Annie, who babysat for Ezekiel and her daughter Ione, nine months—as Ezekiel was when she so often held him, he was holding Ione and at the time, she was barely older than he is now. It’s those little twists and circles around time and relationship that make amazing patterns to behold. And they make me appreciate how rich my life is.
Josh Luckens–Daily Hampshire Gazette photo
Earlier on Sunday, I participated in the Hot Chocolate Run/Walk for Safe Passage. That well over 5,000 people turned out on the first weekend in December to walk or run in hopes of overcoming domestic violence to the tune of over $225,000 raised, that this along with Pride are the two biggest annual civic events, that my fourth grader and his pal could simply run the race together, that my friend Sarah S. signed off on that plan, and that I got to hear, at the top of the hill after Paradise Pond someone say, “You’re almost up the hill!” only to hear this reply, “What hill?” all of that is about as much awesomeness as I can handle.
And I really could go on… and on… and on… But that’s for another day.
