GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Imagine you’ve had a visible medical scare: a dermatologist has carved a chunk out of your forehead,...
Say These Five Words
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Imagine you’ve had a visible medical scare: a dermatologist has carved a chunk out of your forehead, or perhaps you are using crutches. But you have a lunch date with your best friend, and as [...]
Pat Taub
Who is the Powerful Older Woman?
This past weekend I watched the women’s final four college basketball games. Young, powerful athletic bodies were on full display. As I became absorbed in the games, I bemoaned the loss of my once athletic body and physical prowess in general, until my thoughts turned to a different definition of power as it applies to the older woman. [...]
Pat Taub
Moving Out of My Funk
I was in a week long funk brought on by the starvation in Gaza, procrastination over filing my taxes, and a stalled writing project. As I sat brooding, a little voice whispered that I should visit the Portland Art Museum. As an art lover and modest collector, I often find art museums restorative. Fresh out of other ideas, I obeyed that [...]
Pat Taub
Gratitude for the Women’s Circles in My Life
I don’t want to close Women’s History month without acknowledging my history with women’s circles, to whom I owe enormous gratitude. My sister circles supported me at the major crossroads in my life. I can’t imagine my life without them. In the ‘70’s there was the circle that accompanied the birth of my first child. David was [...]
Pat Taub
Important Updates on How Heart Disease Affects Women
GUEST POST by Dr. JENNIFER BEALL and Dr. LEIGH ANN HIGGINS Did you know that the leading cause of death for women is heart disease? A recent study revealed that 68% of Americans were not aware of this fact. For a long time, the medical community assumed that heart disease affected men and women similarly, but we have now discovered that heart [...]
Pat Taub
Practicing Kindness to Overcome Despair
Despair has become my unwelcome visitor. Every time I read about the deteriorating conditions of life in Gaza my stomach churns. Tears come easily. This weekend I took myself to task, realizing I better come up with a strategy ASAP or I will be swallowed up by my despair over Gaza. Suddenly I remembered what worked for me in the past. [...]
Pat Taub
Writing A Eulogy And Finding A Poem
GUEST POST by JANE SESKIN I was about to cross the street when I looked to the right and saw my friend riding toward me. I knew it was Ann from her distinctive red bicycle helmet. She pulled over to the curb. We caught up on personal news and the state of the world. I left the encounter smiling. She was an energetic woman in her late 60’s [...]
Pat Taub
Missing Hearts
How is it possible for the world to ignore babies being murdered every day in Gaza, while those babies who aren’t killed are dying from starvation? How is possible to ignore a Palestinian father who leaves home for a loaf of bread only to return to find his family was murdered in his absence? How is it possible for Israeli soldiers to [...]
Pat Taub
Black Women Writers Who Radicalized Me
For Black History Month I want to honor some of the brilliant African American women writers that have left an indelible mark on me. I’m particularly indebted to Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Angela Davis and Lucille Clifton. I read them in the pre-internet era of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s when face-to-face communication was [...]
Pat Taub
It’s Not Me, It’s Us
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Life-changing wisdom can come to us by surprise. I worked with the novelist and New Yorker editor Writer William Maxwell in his last decade. After he had died, I read that he had brought his fiancée Emmy to meet his father in 1945. His father, a somber man, was delighted, and advised his son, “If you [...]
Pat Taub
Emotions Are Not Enough
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL In south Gaza, in one of many online videos I have watched, a Palestinian grandmother cooked stew over a small open fire – outdoors, because her home had been bombed by the Israeli military. She showed her granddaughter how to make pita bread, talking to her gently all the time. Another short video showed a moment [...]
Pat Taub