It’s not lost on me that many in today’s papers are waxing poetic not about the past year, but the past DECADE. I personally prefer not to engage in that sort of meditation, lest I find myself taking the sharp, pointy end of my figure skates to my 20th floor office window.  Yet here I find a piece worth linking to, one that sums up my feelings on The Most Historic and Hopeful Moment in All of America’s Great History. It’s about the election of President Obama.

Enjoy.

A column about women taking over the workplace, the world:

Millennia of male dominance in workplaces, governments, companies and countries could come to an end in the next few decades. The resulting changes will reverberate through every aspect of our lives and society. And, as with all revolutions, it may not go smoothly. This revolutionary power shift isn’t due to social programs or social engineering. It’s about economics. Some call it “womenomics” because women already account for 80 per cent of all purchasing decisions. More formidably, women may soon be the primary breadwinners. It’s a trend that began more than 30 years ago as women flooded into colleges, universities and trade schools.

This is a disaster. Not the “death of macho,” which is really only a headline and actually, who needs so-called macho men? The problem is the diminishing of male importance, male leadership and the male presence. The disaster is men, rolling over and taking it. Maybe they’re busy smoking a joint, playing video games, sleeping with their girlfriend before going to Mamma’s house for her to get the laundry done, I don’t know. But men of goodwill should not sit back and let this be. Most disastrous of all is that some men won’t take this lying down. And it won’t be the hardworking, family-supporting men who pipe up. It’s going to be chauvenists who will launch the offensive, blaming women and declaring a resurgence of what they think it means to be manly.

We’re in a mess, is all I’m saying, when it comes to gender, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man and how we interact. In the long term I think things will straighten out and get back to something approximating normal decency. But in the short term, I don’t think this is going to be pretty.

Which is what the columnist also says, except that she concludes this way:

It may well be the death of macho. But it is also the liberation of half the world’s people.

I gather she thinks women have been liberated. That’s up for grabs in this here current culture. But even if we accept this, the “liberation” will be short lived. If it comes down to a revolution, and men are fighting women, on sheer brute strength I think we all know who is going to win.

Question: Do I care? I’m not sure I do. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have split. They are not divorcing as they never did marry. Now it seems Susan left Tim for an even younger man?

The takeaway is to not take relationship prompting from Hollywood. And for Susan to think back to her strong and warm character in Little Women, back in the olden days when relationships weren’t dispensable.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtfEN3TbqxI&feature=related]

Yes, I am hearkening back to the good ole’ days. I also made a pomander as a gift this year.

I get emails to ProWomanProLife from women who have had abortions from time to time. Some are hostile, some are thankful, some are in between.

I recently got a note from a girl who could be described as “in between.” She told her story. She wasn’t prepared to have a baby she would never hold and give it up for adoption. She wrote she didn’t want to burden her family, and she said she still feels like a child herself. She didn’t want a response, she said, she wanted only to get her thoughts off her chest. She concluded by saying she didn’t think we were prowoman.

I felt sad while reading that note. Because whoever she is, she only did what the world told her she could. And I had to think to myself that in the eyes of many in the world, what she did makes sense. And what we are doing at ProWomanProLife, well, it doesn’t.

Still, her note reminded me of why I am doing what I’m doing. So I’m including the note I sent her in return, below.

Thank you for taking the time to write in with your story. As you say, you just wanted to this off your chest, and so I’m not sure what an appropriate response is. I guess I’d like you to know that I read your letter and I am thinking about it.

I am constantly struggling with what it means to be pro-woman. In a very concrete way, a baby that would delay your studies, cause you to have morning sickness every day, change your life substantially–well, in a way, you are absolutely right. Keeping that baby is not, in the short term, something that appears to be in line with your goals and dreams, and therefore, not very pro-woman.

A bit about me…I am 33 years old, unmarried, no children. One fear is that I’ll never get the opportunity to have children. It has proven easy for me to have a career, and hard to attain personal success, if we could call it that. (Marriage, children.) Forgive me if this is “too much information”–I’m just telling you a tiny bit of my story so that we might meet somewhere in the middle on what it means to be pro-woman. It has been easy to have a career, and hard to settle down into a family, something I now seek, and something I put off for such time as it would be perfect. I’m not sure at this stage of my life that the perfect time ever comes, not as I understand it to be perfect, anyway.

My long term perspective of what “success” means has really altered over the years. Just as the definition of what it means to be “pro-woman” might alter for you… My baseline understanding of this issue is that the child developing is dependent on the mother, part of her, and that there is no “undo” button, so to speak. Namely that abortion may act as a short-term “solution” but your life has been radically changed no matter what. The health and life of the baby is dependent on the woman, but also the health and life of the woman is dependent to some degree on what happens to that child. It’s like a web–and one can’t do well without the other.

We are all on a journey in this life. And everything happens for a
reason. There is purpose in every step. Your pregnancy and subsequent abortion happened for a reason. In the event that one day you look back and wonder whether you did the right thing–I hope you’ll feel comfortable to talk to people around you. There’s actually a web site called Abortion Changes You— Please feel free to write into this site again.
I hope nothing in this note offends you and would look forward to hearing your thoughts in reply, but obviously feel no obligation. From your note you sound like a mature person who has great dreams and goals. I wish you all the best in pursuing those, and a happy Christmas season.

And I wish every reader all the best in pursuing their goals, and a happy Christmas season, and the opportunity to have every success, whatever success may mean.

May you not be visited by three ghosts (unless you’ve been living as Scrooge, in which case may you be visited by three ghosts and have a tremendous conversion of the heart) but do enjoy this clip from my all time favourite Christmas Carol version:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGohTPuOeQ&feature=fvw]

The best ads of the 2000s.

Sarah Palin is still coming to Hamilton, just for a different charity:

Fortunately for children’s’ groups in Hamilton, local business leaders were able to re-direct the Palin appearance so that the Charity of Hope group would be the beneficiary of the event, said Sam Mercanti, chairman of the charity and CEO of Automotive Canada. “It’s official – she’s going to come here and the monies raised will go towards the Charity of Hope,” Mercanti said. The Charity of Hope raises funds for local kids on behalf of school boards, YMCAs, youth groups and other institutions that benefit children.

I gather there were calls of complaint. However, for every call of complaint I’m sure there were people asking for tickets–point proven insofar as they have shifted the event instead of cancelling it. I for one would support any charity with the chutzpah to invite her and keep her on as a speaker.