There are official dates for when summer ends, the dates changing slightly each year based on the Earth’s position in relation to the sun. The meteorological date was August 31, but the Autumnal Equinox isn’t until September 22. Maybe by then, Texas and other Southern and Western states that are still experiencing high temperatures will get the memo.
For many of us, Autumn doesn’t start until we get out our flannel shirts for our morning walk or outdoor chores. It hardly feels like Fall is here while walking in shorts and a tank top.
We also need to turn off the air conditioning and open windows for a cool breeze. I faintly remember what that was like. 🙂
This is the start of Labor Day weekend, a holiday celebrated by those of us who live in the United States and Canada, while other countries honor workers in May, so I want to wish everyone in both countries a happy holiday weekend.
When I was a kid, this holiday was almost as widely celebrated here in the States as the Fourth of July. Families gathered, sometimes with neighbors, for picnics and cookouts, and it was always great fun to gorge ourselves on hot dogs, then run and play to make room for watermelon and homemade ice cream.
After I married, I was inducted into the Miller family tradition which was to picnic at a local park with the whole Miller clan. The primary celebration was for Mom Miller’s birthday, which was September 5th, but it was also a challenge for the kids to cram all the last of the summer fun they could into one day. They played hard until we ran out of daylight, and slept through their baths. Moms and dads were tempted to just fall into bed fully clothed.
In 2013, September 5th wasn’t a day for celebrating for me and my family. That’s the day my husband, Carl, died, and still these many years later, the day is a sad one for me. Sometimes I wonder if there will ever come a time when I won’t remember that exact date. How many years have to pass for that to happen? Do widows and widowers ever forget?
I suspect not. But the good news is that the date may not hold as much pain of grief as time marches on. That is certainly true for me. While I do miss Carl a lot, sometimes for several days in a row when something triggers a memory. Or when I’m watching the kittens play and for a moment I think of how much he would like one of their antics. He did love the cats that owned us in the later years of his life.
R.I.P Carl and I hope there is a cat or two wherever you are.
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Today, September 5, I’m thinking a lot about Gloria Steinem and the impact the Women’s Movement had on my life. I was aware of her activism when it started in the 70’s, but I was so busy raising kids, I didn’t pay much attention. As a girl, then a woman, I never felt oppressed by men. I was lucky that my father wasn’t misogynistic and neither was my husband. Maybe I was just blind to some behaviors, but that’s musing for another day.
In those early years of the Women’s Movement, there seemed to be a suggestion that a woman needed a job and a career in order to be complete, and I recall that I often wondered why. What about women who chose marriage and family? Weren’t those roles important any more? So much of the rhetoric in articles seemed to exalt only one career path for a woman. Little was written about the importance of being a mother, or exalting all the skills necessary to handle all that the role entails.
I was on the fence, as was many of my peers who were happily being homemakers and a bit removed from the major points of the movement. We felt a little insulted that some career women dismissed us as as not as important in the world as they were, some even hinting that somehow we had sold out.
Still, that was then and now today we mourn the passing of Gloria Steinem. There is no doubt that she deserves all the accolades sent her way. She was an incredible woman who dared to buck a system that she recognized as oppressive to women, and she spent her life working tirelessly for social and political equality for women. Through “Ms Magazine,” she raised awareness of workplace inequality, along with all the other ways women were treated as second-class citizens. She believed that Women’s Liberation was as important as Civil Rights actions and never backed away from her convictions.
Gloria Steinem was a true Icon of the time, and The Daily had a wonderful podcast episode that highlights the connection between her and Dolly Parton.
Michael Barbaro spoke with “Times Magazine” writer Susan Dominus about the lives of the two women and how each of them touched Susan’s life.
Susan says this about Gloria Steinem, “She represented Feminism with a capital F, and she was fighting for a world in which women could fully express themselves and be their most powerful selves, but was also advocating for the world to change, too. She was fighting for structural change, for political change, for legal change.”
Of Dolly Parton Susan points out that the singer never associated herself with feminism. The reason Susan saw Dolly Parton as an important force for the cause in that “Dolly was just embodying the message of the feminist movement in everything she did.” That includes her business acumen, the messages in her songs, her success, and her life choices.
Susan said that she wasn’t aware of who Dolly Parton was until 1980. That’s when she went to the theater with her sister and saw the movie “9 To 5.” Through the role Dolly played in the movie, Susan believes that the singer brought to light so many of the inequalities that women face in the workforce in a most delightful way.
Through the movie Susan believes that in many ways the character that Dolly Parton plays is “executing the vision of what feminists wanted women to be able to do.”
In 1987 “Ms magazine” named Dolly Parton as one of its Women of the Year, and Gloria Steinem herself wrote a tribute to the performer. “The actual wordage is,”People who haven’t listened to Dolly Parton, or Feminism, may be surprised to learn that they go together. If Feminism means each of us finding our unique power and helping other women do the same, Dolly Parton certainly has done both.”
Amen to that. And Amen to the legacy left by both women. May they rest in peace, and maybe sing together.
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That’s all from me for today folks. If you have plans for celebrating the holiday, I hope that involves some good food and good company. Be happy. Be safe. And be kind.