It was cloudy for a few minutes this morning, but it’s sunny again. The streak continues, and I have a fun thank you today because this time, the person who bought me not only left her name, but her Spoutible handle!
Thank you so much to Sandra Macaulay Robinson, who goes by @AgileChef at Spoutible! What makes Sandra so agile? I don’t know, I have images in my head of her dodging obstacles while making a perfect lasagna, but that’s how my head works. I so appreciate the support, it really does mean the world to me. As does a good lasagna, but that goes for everyone.
We’ve come back around to the end of the week, and I’m still feeling the effects of some bewildering dreams, some I remember, some I don’t, really. But still the air of them lingers, in that way I can’t quite shake. Awake but not awake.
I’m sure you know the feeling.
Over nothing specific, I’m reminded today how frequently women are treated like flotsam and jetsam, our lives inconsequential, floating on a vast sea of indifference. In the span of a day, I’ve seen a man gloating with unfettered joy over the preventable death of a woman due to lack of reproductive medical care. In another story, a sheriff who (allegedly) shot a male judge in whose chambers reportedly another law enforcement officer was charged with raping a prisoner. In an offhand, buried line, the article notes that there were charges regarding a second woman that were dropped because, the article reports flatly, “she is now dead.”
The officer got six months in prison, by the way, and some probation. What happened isn’t clear, because neither woman is the main topic of an act of violence which appears to have originated with them.
I saw a financial “help” column where a woman said her husband keeps telling her she’ll have no money when she’s old, despite inheriting a house from her grandparents and having other assets. Why does he say that to her?
You got me.
But it strikes me how women, some much more than others, are everyone’s punching bag. How acceptable it is for the people who claim to love us, for the people charged with protecting us, for the people who allege they do things “for our benefit,” to do all of that with disdain, with contempt.
With violence, whether physical or emotional.
And I think that is why there is hesitation about a woman assuming full power. Always, always, there is the fear of retribution, the knowing of how their own power was used and the concern they will see the other side.
Our empowerment is no one else’s to give. We will take it, without so much as a backward glance.
And with that, I wish you a fabulous Friday and an outstanding weekend.
A Bit to Read 
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