Here in Spain the woman doesn’t take the man’s name, nor does the man take the woman’s. The only slight inequality is that a couple have children the father’s first surname goes first then the mother’s first surname second. Confusingly it’s the male name passed on. But, now people change the order for people who want to for example conserve a rare name.
I had a similar discussion with my first boyfriend but much older than 5! I found myself a Spanish man and I haven’t changed my surname. Nor do I have a a ring, but that’s another story 😉
Yes, I'm aware of this. It's so interesting, the cultural differences. I want to hear about the ring! Because I have opinions about that, too! Of course, I do. xo
I think you are right about fear. The fear of losing one's place in society is very strong. But of course, the men who have rejected that fear and have instead welcomed women in as equals are all the much better for it. They haven't lost anything; they have gained new voices at their table. The men living in fear are causing so much unnecessary anxiety and struggle.
I don't want men welcoming me in as an equal. That feels a little patriarchal. I want men to just act as if. Because we are equal. I don't need permission. That just perpetuates the power imbalance. Am I misunderstanding you?
Your phrasing is much better than mine, Nan! "Act as if" could also be seen as patronizing, I guess. What I would like is for men to do the work to fully see women as people, which is clearly not the case for most men, even decent ones. They see this difference as separating us rather than being a beautiful part of nature and humanity.
Thank you. "Acting as if" is a phrase I learned in 12-Step work. I use that phrase for gaining a belief in having a higher power, a concept that's very challenging for me. I'm acting as if I do believe until I DO believe. If men could act as if until they can accept that we are equal (if not better!) then the work is on them to do. Not us. I'm tired of teaching them what is a no-brainer to me. Let them work on it. I don't need to be their partners in this. I'm done with that. Yikes! I'm a little fired up on this topic, huh? Anyway, good to meet you! xo
my courage is also burning bright alongside yours. thank you for this powerful piece, Nan! i love that we both wrote feminist pieces in the same week. it’s like we’re connected or something 🤍
Yes! Like we're connected! I want to write another piece about women and safety around men. I'm seething right now, with the verdicts in the Pelicot case bringing up all kinds of memories of wounding, and of the disdain toward women who stand up and speak their truths. Her case was so extreme and there was so much damning evidence. How many women are swept to the side, how much gaslighting, how much blaming the victim? I'm glad we're in each other's camps. Stay strong! xo
My grandson is taking shop as a high school sophomore. It recently got resurrected by the school from the discarded subjects where girls were forbidden and relegated to something more suitable like home ec or stenography.
I asked him if there were girls in his class and he was aghast. Of course, came his response. When I told him there was no way a girl could sign up for wood shop when I was in school he was shocked.
The indignities we’ve endured in pursuit of simple parity is unconscionable. And I fear we are poised to go even further backward. My resistance is tamped down by the result of so many coerced women and their toxicly masculine cohorts who decided women should go back to be dragged by their ponytail around the cave.
I really need posts like this to remind me there are women who are simmering all over the place. The more we speak of the inequities, the better we can band together.
I'm glad he was shocked. That gives me a little hope. But yes, it's all kind of a mess. I've never had a ponytail in my life. I don't plan on growing one any time soon. Sisterhood is POWERFUL. Read. Write. Holler.
I love your essay, and all the comments in this thread. I know that things haven't fundamentally changed, but it felt so good to be a girl growing up in a time when positive change was happening. And even though the underlying fear/hatred hasn't shifted much, it makes a real, material difference in women's lives when we can control our bodies and get our own credit and choose to leave marriages for no other reason than our desire to. My life would not have been what it is without those things. I'd have been trapped in a toxic marriage, probably without an education. I am so angry and so, so sad that today's girls are having the opposite experience of ours. I don't know what to do with or about these feelings. Because even in spite of those things I had, it's still been a long slog of a life under patriarchy, and I'm tired.
I hear every word of what you're saying, and I relate. It's appalling to me that there was a time when women couldn't get credit on their own or buy a house or even LEAVE a marriage without cosigners or consent of hopefully-soon-to-be-ex. In Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas, California and Texas pregnant women can't get divorced without husband's consent. TODAY! We need to fight anyway we can. For goodness sake, there's still child marriage in this country, even with legislation passed this year against it. This year. I can't believe this is a thing for us. And yes, I felt encouraged too that things were changing for the better when I was younger. I think writing this essay and then reading the comments has made me even more angry. That's good. xo
I think I was lucky, too, to grow up in a relatively progressive part of the country (urban PNW). I mean, I remember my second grade teacher playing the "Free to Be You and Me" album sometimes during our independent work time. That could still happen today here, but I know in other parts of the country that would not fly.
I just want to thank you for the fine structure of this piece. As a workshop leader and editor--and a memoirist myself--I appreciate the chronological flow of your disturbances. The incidents and reactions you had to them, all accumulating and leading to an identification as a feminist, not only give us a picture of Nan over the years, but also stamp the dates and eras of important cultural details onto our awareness. It's astounding to remember that I couldn't get my own bank credit card in 1971. I do count myself fortunate that my mother was a strong-willed woman who lived in both worlds--taught herself how to drive in a cornfield, went to college to be a teacher, moved us across the country from the Midwest to California when a better teaching position was offered to her, chose to adopt a 9-year-old girl (me) when she was 50. All this while being a good wife to two husbands and mother to me. Strong woman! XXX
Thanks, Ann. That's lovely. I really have no idea what I'm doing, at least that's what I think most of the time. Just feeling my way! xo I'm glad you had a strong-willed mother...was that good for you?
"Miss Rothenberg asked the wrong question. My father helped me with it. He was a fashion designer who could sew anything. Why should I enlighten her?" Love it!! And the bikini-bottom photo!
And oh, Phyllis Schlafly ... thanks, lady.
More and more I understand that there are always people who are afraid of women's equality, DESPERATELY afraid, and they will do all sorts of things to prevent it from ever coming to be.
xoxo. So tired. I've spent so much time in my life fretting that so many things that I consider no-brainers make no sense to others. When are they going to listen to me and do it my way????
The fight isn't close to being over, is it? Not at all. Good that you had that model in your mom. Rare. I don't care how women come to their feminism as long as they get there. I see no reason to label them other than "feminist." Why the need for the othering? Not everyone is as lucky to have the mother that you had.
I went back a generation and kept my mother’s maiden name in her honor.
Not only is women’s reproduction rights under great threat and women are dying, but the way women get to reproduce or not is a huge problem that injures more women and babies than anyone knows about.
I am a survivor of that and so are my twins. I have not become complacent. I’m not able to. I’m also exhausted, but I love this essay.
I love reading about your success on Substack and the topics you choose to read about are just absolutely incredible and necessary. You have my 100% plus support and I wish for myself to find more time to be engaged, but I am here and I love you.
Thank you for another great article
I could tell parallel stories I was born in 1957 as you know with the name, Nancy. Someday.
I love you, too, Prajna. I think you're very engaged and doing such a beautiful job building your audience and making a difference for your readers. Thank you, thank you, lovely friend. xo
Wow, Nan, what a fierce manifesto, which makes sense given you were a fierce five year old feminist! I loved your insistence the boy would take the girl's last name. I did not change my last name when I got married. That was something I would not concede on. (Also speaking of fierce, I like the new typography of your Substack header). It is so dispiriting that we have not made more progress in this country in women being treated and paid equally, and to have our bodily autonomy stripped from us in the way we've gone so far backwards in a woman's right to choose, what my mother fought so hard for in the 60s. But yes, our fighting spirit is still alive. I feel it sparking, too, in me. We won't be quiet. I know you won't, because I can see your feistiness still, Nan!
Thanks, Amy. Even though we did have autonomy over our reproductive freedom, I don't believe we've ever had true bodily autonomy. That won't happen until men stop treating us like objects to be controlled. Until the violence ends there's no freedom. We have to keep speaking up. It's scary at times, but we must. Kudos to you for keeping your name, unbelievable to me that we have to say that it was something we wouldn't concede. This is something that's never expected of men. BLECCCHHHH. xoxo
You were a bit ahead of me, but I never could imagine changing my last name — even though I also didn’t necessarily want the family name. The year we moved to the mountains when I was still in elementary school, I played basketball on the boy’s team, the only girl. Despite it being a pretty provincial area, I guess I was lucky to have to take both shop and home ec. Like others, I appreciate the historical timeline woven through your post, Nan. Many of us have taken things for granted, and the rug is being pulled now from under us. You were definitely precocious at five in the best of ways.
Thanks, Amy. The rules in school started changing not to long after I experienced the limitations in junior high. It got more relaxed but attitudes didn't. When I was 19 I worked as a cabinetmaker's apprentice. Every time we had to go to a job site for an installation, the other workers on site (all men) were so dismissive or overtly rude that I ended up leaving the job. The abuse was phenomenal, and my boss, who was a lovely guy was regretful that I wasn't willing to go through it but he was somewhat powerless to do anything about it, even though he stood up for me every time. It was pretty awful. xo
I can't believe the amazing photos you have! Beyond that extra love in your posts, well, wow, so much here, Nan. When I married at 21, I happily took my husband's last name because, growing up, the kids made fun of my last name. It was Italian, with so many vowels and syllables that no one could ever pronounce. His last name was also Italian but prettier and easier to pronounce. Then we divorced, and I went through the legal process of taking my maiden name back. I reclaimed myself and swore if I got married again, I was NOT taking his name. I caved. I took my new husband's name. The saving grace is he's a good man, always supportive, and after 4 decades, I've decided to keep him and his name.
I hear you, Paulette. I understand completely about opting for an easier name, and recently a young woman I know got married and took her new husband's name. I know she's a feminist, and her given name was not as nice sounding, but it's the automatic assumption that I rail against, and honestly a woman being subsumed and losing that very practical part of her identity is tough for me and always will be I imagine. The part of you that loves your man and chose to opt in, and the clarity you have about who you are is really what matters the most. Love to you! xo
Powerful little one! And grew up to be a powerful adult. Congratulations on having 100 paid subscribers and 1000 subscribers! That’s so awesome!
All of this malarkey being spewed in the world is drowning out common sense. We seem to be back to being the strong, passionate women who uphold each other, no matter what is said about us nor thrown at us. What a tragic place our country has fallen to in electing a felon and rapist. Hopefully, he will go falling at the feet of the wall of women formed by the linking of our arms.
Thank you for this beautiful blessing you've just sent out into our world. I'll gladly link arms with you any day of the week. Sending you great love, Teyani. xo
Wow, Nan. This hit home. My very first feminist moment was when I asked my mom why “men” or “man” is used, instead of “person” or “people.” I can’t remember how old I was, but I was an early reader and paid attention in
church. I was probably about four. I remember feeling outraged when she replied, “Men are more important than women. When I asked the follow-up question, her answer was “Boys are more important than girls.” I remember being angrier about that statement, and having to ask the next obvious question, which was, “Are my brothers more important than me?” The answer was “Yes,” and it was devastating. I had three brothers and was the only girl.
Things are hard nowadays. I find myself wondering how to move forward from despair. I’ve decided that the answer is: Find your tribe. Thank you, Nan, for being part of my tribe. xo
My responses to my questions were cloaked in grammatical correctness. I remember sitting in my sixth grade classroom getting the lecture that “they/them” would never be taught or acceptable because binary terms and male supremacy reigned supreme.
To be told explicitly that boys mattered more than girls, instead of observing it first hand would be devastating. Our tribe must guide us through these dark days. We must prevail. Great comment, Mary.
Colleen. So terrible. Language is powerful; as writers we know how much it shapes our world. What a relief when “his or her” was - if not supplanted by, at least grudgingly admitted as an acceptable option to that awkward construct. And yet. Is it really codified as proper spoken or written language? I think not. It was brutal when my mother was so open about my place in the “natural” order of things. But she was honest. It was deeply painful. But growing up in a patriarchal world was hurtful as well. I can only say that my dad, as the kind and intuitive man he was, saved me.
There are no words to express how grateful I am for you, Colleen. You’re at the very center of my tribe. I admire you for your courage and commitment to what is right. My profound gratitude to you.
Oh, my dear. That's devastating. Devastating. It made me cry to read it. Goddess, what's been done to us. And what's been done to the women who've come before us.
I've definitely committed to finding my tribe. I was just saying this to Marya in regard to what to do with the next 4 years especially. I told her I'm creating my own little universe and the only people allowed in are the kind ones who treat each other with love and respect, the ones who have empathy. That's all I'm interested in right now. I'm so glad to be a part of your tribe, Mary. It's an honor. xo
Here in Spain the woman doesn’t take the man’s name, nor does the man take the woman’s. The only slight inequality is that a couple have children the father’s first surname goes first then the mother’s first surname second. Confusingly it’s the male name passed on. But, now people change the order for people who want to for example conserve a rare name.
I had a similar discussion with my first boyfriend but much older than 5! I found myself a Spanish man and I haven’t changed my surname. Nor do I have a a ring, but that’s another story 😉
Yes, I'm aware of this. It's so interesting, the cultural differences. I want to hear about the ring! Because I have opinions about that, too! Of course, I do. xo
Ok fuck Keith Schiller. And thank you for lighting a fire under our asses! This post is delightfully vicious!
I think you are right about fear. The fear of losing one's place in society is very strong. But of course, the men who have rejected that fear and have instead welcomed women in as equals are all the much better for it. They haven't lost anything; they have gained new voices at their table. The men living in fear are causing so much unnecessary anxiety and struggle.
I don't want men welcoming me in as an equal. That feels a little patriarchal. I want men to just act as if. Because we are equal. I don't need permission. That just perpetuates the power imbalance. Am I misunderstanding you?
Your phrasing is much better than mine, Nan! "Act as if" could also be seen as patronizing, I guess. What I would like is for men to do the work to fully see women as people, which is clearly not the case for most men, even decent ones. They see this difference as separating us rather than being a beautiful part of nature and humanity.
Thank you. "Acting as if" is a phrase I learned in 12-Step work. I use that phrase for gaining a belief in having a higher power, a concept that's very challenging for me. I'm acting as if I do believe until I DO believe. If men could act as if until they can accept that we are equal (if not better!) then the work is on them to do. Not us. I'm tired of teaching them what is a no-brainer to me. Let them work on it. I don't need to be their partners in this. I'm done with that. Yikes! I'm a little fired up on this topic, huh? Anyway, good to meet you! xo
my courage is also burning bright alongside yours. thank you for this powerful piece, Nan! i love that we both wrote feminist pieces in the same week. it’s like we’re connected or something 🤍
Yes! Like we're connected! I want to write another piece about women and safety around men. I'm seething right now, with the verdicts in the Pelicot case bringing up all kinds of memories of wounding, and of the disdain toward women who stand up and speak their truths. Her case was so extreme and there was so much damning evidence. How many women are swept to the side, how much gaslighting, how much blaming the victim? I'm glad we're in each other's camps. Stay strong! xo
Nan,
My grandson is taking shop as a high school sophomore. It recently got resurrected by the school from the discarded subjects where girls were forbidden and relegated to something more suitable like home ec or stenography.
I asked him if there were girls in his class and he was aghast. Of course, came his response. When I told him there was no way a girl could sign up for wood shop when I was in school he was shocked.
The indignities we’ve endured in pursuit of simple parity is unconscionable. And I fear we are poised to go even further backward. My resistance is tamped down by the result of so many coerced women and their toxicly masculine cohorts who decided women should go back to be dragged by their ponytail around the cave.
I really need posts like this to remind me there are women who are simmering all over the place. The more we speak of the inequities, the better we can band together.
I'm glad he was shocked. That gives me a little hope. But yes, it's all kind of a mess. I've never had a ponytail in my life. I don't plan on growing one any time soon. Sisterhood is POWERFUL. Read. Write. Holler.
I love your essay, and all the comments in this thread. I know that things haven't fundamentally changed, but it felt so good to be a girl growing up in a time when positive change was happening. And even though the underlying fear/hatred hasn't shifted much, it makes a real, material difference in women's lives when we can control our bodies and get our own credit and choose to leave marriages for no other reason than our desire to. My life would not have been what it is without those things. I'd have been trapped in a toxic marriage, probably without an education. I am so angry and so, so sad that today's girls are having the opposite experience of ours. I don't know what to do with or about these feelings. Because even in spite of those things I had, it's still been a long slog of a life under patriarchy, and I'm tired.
I hear every word of what you're saying, and I relate. It's appalling to me that there was a time when women couldn't get credit on their own or buy a house or even LEAVE a marriage without cosigners or consent of hopefully-soon-to-be-ex. In Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas, California and Texas pregnant women can't get divorced without husband's consent. TODAY! We need to fight anyway we can. For goodness sake, there's still child marriage in this country, even with legislation passed this year against it. This year. I can't believe this is a thing for us. And yes, I felt encouraged too that things were changing for the better when I was younger. I think writing this essay and then reading the comments has made me even more angry. That's good. xo
I think I was lucky, too, to grow up in a relatively progressive part of the country (urban PNW). I mean, I remember my second grade teacher playing the "Free to Be You and Me" album sometimes during our independent work time. That could still happen today here, but I know in other parts of the country that would not fly.
I know the words to every single song on Free to Be You and Me. Still. xo
💜💜💜
I just want to thank you for the fine structure of this piece. As a workshop leader and editor--and a memoirist myself--I appreciate the chronological flow of your disturbances. The incidents and reactions you had to them, all accumulating and leading to an identification as a feminist, not only give us a picture of Nan over the years, but also stamp the dates and eras of important cultural details onto our awareness. It's astounding to remember that I couldn't get my own bank credit card in 1971. I do count myself fortunate that my mother was a strong-willed woman who lived in both worlds--taught herself how to drive in a cornfield, went to college to be a teacher, moved us across the country from the Midwest to California when a better teaching position was offered to her, chose to adopt a 9-year-old girl (me) when she was 50. All this while being a good wife to two husbands and mother to me. Strong woman! XXX
Thanks, Ann. That's lovely. I really have no idea what I'm doing, at least that's what I think most of the time. Just feeling my way! xo I'm glad you had a strong-willed mother...was that good for you?
P.S. I just remembered that my mothers "maiden" aunt once told me she never got married because she didn't want to give up her name!
OH. I love that about your mom's aunt. Do you think she might have been gay? I always wonder about those maidens and spinsters!
"Miss Rothenberg asked the wrong question. My father helped me with it. He was a fashion designer who could sew anything. Why should I enlighten her?" Love it!! And the bikini-bottom photo!
And oh, Phyllis Schlafly ... thanks, lady.
More and more I understand that there are always people who are afraid of women's equality, DESPERATELY afraid, and they will do all sorts of things to prevent it from ever coming to be.
I'm tired too.
xoxo. So tired. I've spent so much time in my life fretting that so many things that I consider no-brainers make no sense to others. When are they going to listen to me and do it my way????
I remember 1963. I was 13 and astounded to discover that women needed to be feminists.
I am a born feminist, meaning that I knew forever that women were equal to men in--well, everything. My mother made that clear from the beginning.
I think of women who had to "discover" feminism as "made feminists."
Nowadays, a lot of women seem to think feminism is over because the fight is over. Nuh-uh.
The fight isn't close to being over, is it? Not at all. Good that you had that model in your mom. Rare. I don't care how women come to their feminism as long as they get there. I see no reason to label them other than "feminist." Why the need for the othering? Not everyone is as lucky to have the mother that you had.
I went back a generation and kept my mother’s maiden name in her honor.
Not only is women’s reproduction rights under great threat and women are dying, but the way women get to reproduce or not is a huge problem that injures more women and babies than anyone knows about.
I am a survivor of that and so are my twins. I have not become complacent. I’m not able to. I’m also exhausted, but I love this essay.
I love reading about your success on Substack and the topics you choose to read about are just absolutely incredible and necessary. You have my 100% plus support and I wish for myself to find more time to be engaged, but I am here and I love you.
Thank you for another great article
I could tell parallel stories I was born in 1957 as you know with the name, Nancy. Someday.
I love you, too, Prajna. I think you're very engaged and doing such a beautiful job building your audience and making a difference for your readers. Thank you, thank you, lovely friend. xo
Wow, Nan, what a fierce manifesto, which makes sense given you were a fierce five year old feminist! I loved your insistence the boy would take the girl's last name. I did not change my last name when I got married. That was something I would not concede on. (Also speaking of fierce, I like the new typography of your Substack header). It is so dispiriting that we have not made more progress in this country in women being treated and paid equally, and to have our bodily autonomy stripped from us in the way we've gone so far backwards in a woman's right to choose, what my mother fought so hard for in the 60s. But yes, our fighting spirit is still alive. I feel it sparking, too, in me. We won't be quiet. I know you won't, because I can see your feistiness still, Nan!
Thanks, Amy. Even though we did have autonomy over our reproductive freedom, I don't believe we've ever had true bodily autonomy. That won't happen until men stop treating us like objects to be controlled. Until the violence ends there's no freedom. We have to keep speaking up. It's scary at times, but we must. Kudos to you for keeping your name, unbelievable to me that we have to say that it was something we wouldn't concede. This is something that's never expected of men. BLECCCHHHH. xoxo
Your courage is here. We see it. It’s here.
You were a bit ahead of me, but I never could imagine changing my last name — even though I also didn’t necessarily want the family name. The year we moved to the mountains when I was still in elementary school, I played basketball on the boy’s team, the only girl. Despite it being a pretty provincial area, I guess I was lucky to have to take both shop and home ec. Like others, I appreciate the historical timeline woven through your post, Nan. Many of us have taken things for granted, and the rug is being pulled now from under us. You were definitely precocious at five in the best of ways.
Thanks, Amy. The rules in school started changing not to long after I experienced the limitations in junior high. It got more relaxed but attitudes didn't. When I was 19 I worked as a cabinetmaker's apprentice. Every time we had to go to a job site for an installation, the other workers on site (all men) were so dismissive or overtly rude that I ended up leaving the job. The abuse was phenomenal, and my boss, who was a lovely guy was regretful that I wasn't willing to go through it but he was somewhat powerless to do anything about it, even though he stood up for me every time. It was pretty awful. xo
I can't believe the amazing photos you have! Beyond that extra love in your posts, well, wow, so much here, Nan. When I married at 21, I happily took my husband's last name because, growing up, the kids made fun of my last name. It was Italian, with so many vowels and syllables that no one could ever pronounce. His last name was also Italian but prettier and easier to pronounce. Then we divorced, and I went through the legal process of taking my maiden name back. I reclaimed myself and swore if I got married again, I was NOT taking his name. I caved. I took my new husband's name. The saving grace is he's a good man, always supportive, and after 4 decades, I've decided to keep him and his name.
I hear you, Paulette. I understand completely about opting for an easier name, and recently a young woman I know got married and took her new husband's name. I know she's a feminist, and her given name was not as nice sounding, but it's the automatic assumption that I rail against, and honestly a woman being subsumed and losing that very practical part of her identity is tough for me and always will be I imagine. The part of you that loves your man and chose to opt in, and the clarity you have about who you are is really what matters the most. Love to you! xo
Powerful little one! And grew up to be a powerful adult. Congratulations on having 100 paid subscribers and 1000 subscribers! That’s so awesome!
All of this malarkey being spewed in the world is drowning out common sense. We seem to be back to being the strong, passionate women who uphold each other, no matter what is said about us nor thrown at us. What a tragic place our country has fallen to in electing a felon and rapist. Hopefully, he will go falling at the feet of the wall of women formed by the linking of our arms.
Thank you for this beautiful blessing you've just sent out into our world. I'll gladly link arms with you any day of the week. Sending you great love, Teyani. xo
Wow, Nan. This hit home. My very first feminist moment was when I asked my mom why “men” or “man” is used, instead of “person” or “people.” I can’t remember how old I was, but I was an early reader and paid attention in
church. I was probably about four. I remember feeling outraged when she replied, “Men are more important than women. When I asked the follow-up question, her answer was “Boys are more important than girls.” I remember being angrier about that statement, and having to ask the next obvious question, which was, “Are my brothers more important than me?” The answer was “Yes,” and it was devastating. I had three brothers and was the only girl.
Things are hard nowadays. I find myself wondering how to move forward from despair. I’ve decided that the answer is: Find your tribe. Thank you, Nan, for being part of my tribe. xo
Mary,
My responses to my questions were cloaked in grammatical correctness. I remember sitting in my sixth grade classroom getting the lecture that “they/them” would never be taught or acceptable because binary terms and male supremacy reigned supreme.
To be told explicitly that boys mattered more than girls, instead of observing it first hand would be devastating. Our tribe must guide us through these dark days. We must prevail. Great comment, Mary.
Colleen. So terrible. Language is powerful; as writers we know how much it shapes our world. What a relief when “his or her” was - if not supplanted by, at least grudgingly admitted as an acceptable option to that awkward construct. And yet. Is it really codified as proper spoken or written language? I think not. It was brutal when my mother was so open about my place in the “natural” order of things. But she was honest. It was deeply painful. But growing up in a patriarchal world was hurtful as well. I can only say that my dad, as the kind and intuitive man he was, saved me.
There are no words to express how grateful I am for you, Colleen. You’re at the very center of my tribe. I admire you for your courage and commitment to what is right. My profound gratitude to you.
Thank you for your response to Colleen's comment. I want to know more about your supportive dad. xo
Oh, my dear. That's devastating. Devastating. It made me cry to read it. Goddess, what's been done to us. And what's been done to the women who've come before us.
I've definitely committed to finding my tribe. I was just saying this to Marya in regard to what to do with the next 4 years especially. I told her I'm creating my own little universe and the only people allowed in are the kind ones who treat each other with love and respect, the ones who have empathy. That's all I'm interested in right now. I'm so glad to be a part of your tribe, Mary. It's an honor. xo
I’m with you, Nan. Thanks for this.
Thank you, Bar!