Written
by Heidi Stevens, the following was published in the Chicago Tribune:
Book Offers Next
Chapter in 'Having it All'
Ann-Marie'
Slaughter's essay,“Why
Women Still Can't Have It All”
is among the five most-read articles in the history of “The
Atlantic”. It has been viewed an estimated 2.7 million times since
its 2012 publication and is widely credited with injecting energy
(positive and negative) into the long-running conversation about
work/life balance. Slaughter continued that conversation in her new
book: “Unfinished
Business ~ Women, men, work, Family
which she devotes considerable time to redefining the 'all' we're
struggling so mightily to have.
I grew up believing my father's work was more important than my
mother's work...and that to become a liberated woman, was to be like
my dad and become a lawyer. Slaughter went a few steps beyond
lawyer, serving as the first female director of policy under
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She commuted to Washington, D.C.
every week from her home in New Jersey, where her husband, Andy,
served as 'lead parent' to their sons (aged10 and12) when she started
the job in 2009.
Two
years later, she headed back to Princeton to resume her post as law
professor. “I had always believed, and told all the young women I
taught and mentored, that women could 'have
it all',
meaning simply that they could have careers and families in the same
way and at the same levels as men do,” Slaughter wrote. “Men who
are presidents, CEO's, directors, managers, leaders of all kinds have
families too...but here I was, committed to my career as I had ever
been.
“I
no longer think my dad's work was more important than my mom's. I
see the way my mother invested in all of us ~ her three children and
her extended family ~ and I think that is an equal achievement. We
grow by investing in others as much as we do investing in ourselves.
Traditionally, the world of men's work was investing in themselves
and competition.
Women
should have ample time to nurture children, aging parents, ailing
spouses...without watching their careers suffer. It's up to us to
create the conditions in which the two can reinforce each other.
This means referring to men with careers and kids as working
fathers...the
same way we call women as
working
mothers.
It means pushing corporations and the Federal Government to support
flexible hours and generous family leave and quality child care”.
It is society as a whole that assigns value and prestige to what
people do.
That is the world we must now create.
Diana
Nyad Explains Why 66 is Better than 28
“I
was 64 when I became the first to swim the 110.86 miles from Cuba to
Florida, something I failed when I was28. The truth is, I am a
better athlete in my mid-60's than I was, even as a world champion in
my mid-20's. The cliche is that we reach our 'prime in middle age
because we are mature; we have found patience and perspective. We
recognize that our time is more and more valuable with each fleeting
year. We tap into a well of experience and open-mindedness.
“There
is no doubt that I am breathing the life force of my prime physical
self now, at age 66:
I am more resilient. My immune system is a stronger fortress.
I can summon a brute strength I never had back in the day.
I was a thoroughbred then, more finely tuned, but also somewhat
fragile.
These days I'm more of a Clydesdale, sturdy and stalwart.
If
you told me I'd be left stranded in the wilderness for many months
and could choose at which age I would attempt to survive the ordeal,
I'd pick this very age, 66. I accept the lines on my face, cartilage
thinning in the knees, the breasts riding lower and lower. Who
calculates that we're too old to work in our profession?
Who
decrees the assigned ages for productivity and vitality?
I accept the laws of the universe when it comes to aging ~ but I
point-blank refuse to cower in the face of the weak and faulty
statistics, geared for the masses, that pay little respect to the
will and potential of the individual.
This is the crux of it all:
We rabidly pursue youth in the name of appearing young.
Too many of us aren't exercising our bodies and carefully
contemplating every food morsel we eat.
Age is not only a 'state of mind' ~ it is a state of body, as well.
We think our value lies in what age we are perceived to be rather
than in the measurements of how we are performing and what we're
experiencing. I insist to be left to my own reckoning!”
A
Woman's Contentment ~ Her Perfect Breakfast
She's sitting at the table with her steaming gourmet coffee. Her son
is on the cover of the Wheaties box.
Her daughter is on the cover of Business Week. Her boyfriend is on
the back of the milk carton.
Audrey
Hepburn's Beauty Tips
For attractive LIPS...speak words of kindness.
For lovely EYES...seek out the good in people.
For a slim FIGURE...share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful HAIR...let a child run his/her fingers through it once
a day.
For POISE...walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two HANDS:
one is for helping yourself and the other for helping others
.
Remember that people, even more than things, have to be
restored,
renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed.
Boost someone's self-esteem today.
Compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...October 31, 2015
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