The heat is coming
I can already sense a difference. Three days ago, a chill winter day with a cool, wet breeze. I bundled up on the ride home but still caught chill.
Today’s a different animal. Humidity and heat peek through the hazy sky and, frisbee tucked under my arm, sweat leaking, I make my way home.
The boys run ahead, they’re trying to get a workout in. I hang back, watching the local couples strike a pose next to the lake. And I step onto my mental soapbox.
If you need a blankety-blank Day, or Blankety-blank Month, chances are you’re doing it wrong the rest of the time.
Instead of International Women’s Day, how about International Women’s Year. Decade. Century?
Men have had a long run in power, and I can’t say it’s going particularly well.
I round the bend and run into my neighbor with her daughter.
Happy IWD!
Thanks. Apparently it’s a big deal with the Vietnamese.
I instantly worry, and make a mental note to text T, T, and H with a special wish.
But if I buy into this superficial day aren’t I just enabling the entrenched patriarchy and its band-aid lip service?
I add on a pact with myself – to empower the little ones I work with to make the world better. I know it’s not the answer to systemic inequity,
but it’s a start.
So, while I’m at it.
J, Mom, sisters, grandmas (rest in peace), aunties, nieces, colleagues, bosses, mentors, teammates, friends, students, children, icons, role models. I’m so grateful for you all.
You are change makers, stalwarts, and superstars. Here’s to taking the sentiment of today and making it real, broader, better.
And permanent.
Get Up Eight 
Oh, yes. I agree. I love your descriptors: change makers, stalwarts and superstars! Everyday women go out in the world and make things happen, quietly without notoriety or fanfare because that’s who we are.
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Having lived overseas, I also noticed how this “holiday” was celebrated more than where I’m living now in the U.S. I didn’t really even know about it until I lived abroad and truly not until I received a gift from a student. And I, like you, was and continue to be troubled by this one day a year notion, this day is the only one where we as a world should celebrate women. This morning I paused to thank my ancestors who came before me and helped shape things for me. I also promise, like you, to work daily, not just on IWD, to empower, enrich and lift up women and girls around me. Thanks for your post and reminding me that we can take small steps of action each day to change this.
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I agree with you! I wish we weren’t still in need of a special day to remind us to celebrate women. Alas, here we are. I hope we won’t always need it.
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“I add on a pact to myself”. This is a great call to us all and you have phrased it well.
And I am grateful to J too. She left me with such an impression!
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Me too! 😉
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I love this line: “Instead of International Women’s Day, how about International Women’s Year. Decade. Century?” It’s so true. And I also love that you came around to using this day to celebrate the women in our lives. That last line is so powerful: “Here’s to taking the sentiment of today and making it real, broader, better.” Amen!
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