| 12-13 TABLE of CONTENTS:
More from Listening, by Sey Chessler
The Winter Solstice
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by
Katherine Anne Porter, Robin Morgan, and Hester Mundis.
Listening
by Sey Chessler
"At home one night after
dinner, I sat down to read the paper, as usual, while my wife went into
the kitchen to do the dishes. I could see her in the kitchen. She looked
happy, or at least not unhappy, there in the pretty kitchen she had designed
- and she was probably appreciating the change of pace after a hard day
as chief of service in a mental hospital dealing with a staff of three
or four dozen employees and a hundred or more patients, some of whom threatened
her from time to time.
"Yes, she was using the time well, since she
had no hobbies to break the tension. I was feeling comfortably and happily
married, when - CLICK - the view changed, and I saw a hardworking woman
doing something she'd rather not be doing just now.
"When my wife finished and sat down near me,
I kissed her with a special tenderness, I thought. She didn't. As a matter
of fact, she turned the other cheek. Something was going on in both our
heads. The next night I decided to do the dishes and she read the paper.
At the sink, I began to think about male arrogance. Why did I have the
choice of doing or not doing the dishes, while my wife did not? By the
same token, why had she had to wait until our children (and I always thought
of them as HER children when they were small and dependant) were in school
to exercise her 'free' choice of working at her career? Our jobs were equally
pressured and difficult (hers more harrowing than mine) and yet, if I chose
to sit and read after dinner, I could. She could not, unless I decided
she could by OFFERING to do the dishes. My definition of freedom was based
on a white male conception: the notion that because I am free, because
I can make choices, anyone can make choices, I was defining 'anyone' in
my terms, in masculine terms. I am anyone, unqualified. She is anyone,
gender female.
"So you take your tender kisses and shove them."
[Another excerpt from this essay can be found
in WOA 12-12.]
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The Winter Solstice
Until the calendar reform,
the winter solstice fell on this date. Many religious observances in December
are built around the "rebirth of the sun" and the older ones
continue to be celebrated on the old day, including the Feast of Saint
Lucy and Lucia Day in Sweden.
'Tis said that on the eve of her day, Lucia is seen
coming across the snow-covered fields with a crown of light around her
hair. Some areas have torchlight processions, bonfires, or processions
carrying candles - all built around the summoning back of the sun which
has disappeared. Usually the DAUGHTERS of the household are the ones who
lead the celebrations.
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12-13 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 12-13-1818, Mary Ann Todd Lincoln, wife
of Abraham Lincoln, raised as a Southern lady protected and genteel,
her life became a tragedy: she was the victim of vicious gossip during
the Civil War, her husband was shot at her side, two of her children died,
and one of her sons had her declared insane (which was set aside some months
later).
She was genuinely a disturbed woman, who today could
have been treated. Actually, to have lived through all that happened to
her and not go insane is a mark of her inherent strength. As a Southerner
during the Civil War in the White House she was subject to horrible gossip
and slander by Washington insiders.
B. 12-13-1833, Belle da Costa Greene, librarian,
for 40 years supervised and collected the manuscripts and books for the
famed Morgan Library. It was the Morgan money but the Greene insight that
determined the materials and developed the world-famous institution.
Event 12-13-1853, the first woman's infirmary
that was staffed by women physicians was
the New York Infirmary of Women and Children, New York City "to
provide for poor women the medical advice of competent physicians of her
own sex." The physicians were Drs. Elizabeth
Blackwell, Emily Blackwell, and Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska.
B. 12-13-1871, Emily Carr, Canadian painter
of Indians and landscapes of western Canada, now regarded as a major Canadian
artist although during most of her life she was laughed at and scorned.
She was a preservationist of native ways and traveled
extensively to far flung Indian villages to record the vanishing traditions.
She studied art in both London and France. While in Paris she adopted the
impressionist style, which developed into her own art that could be described
as a mixture of Renoir and Van Gogh through the eyes of Gauguin.
Her sweeping paintings of the vast Western Canada
went unappreciated and she was forced to earn her living by doing crafts
such as weaving and pottery. Finally, in her late 50's as the appreciation
of modern art came to Canada, she resumed painting but still without commercial
success.
She turned to writing in her late 60's and her book
Klee Wyck published when she was 70 was only the first of many successful
publications. Joyfully, in 1994 according to Canadian historical writer
Susan E. Merritt, when Emily was 72, she was given an exhibition in Montreal
and 57 of her 60 paintings were sold. She died at 73, finally recognized
as a great artist and admired as a fine writer.
The Vancouver Art Gallery displays the work she willed
to the Province of British Columbia. She never married.
B. 12-13-1879, Eleanor Robson Belmont. At 32,
after a renowned acting career, married fabulously wealthy 57-year-old
August Belmont and became one of the great patrons of the arts in the US.
She was one of the founders of the American Woman's Association.
ERC was the first woman to deliver a commencement
address at New York University in its long history and organized the Metropolitan
Opera Guild (1935) to coordinate efforts to stabilize income for the Metropolitan.
Her mother and grandmother were stars of the British stage.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
PORTER, KATHERINE, ANNE:
"Adventure
is something you seek for pleasure, or even for profit, like a gold rush
or invading a country; ...but experience is what really happens to you
in the long run; the truth that finally overtakes you."
-- Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) American writer
MORGAN, ROBIN:
"I'm
just a person trapped inside a woman's body."
-- Robin Morgan
MUNDIS, HESTER:
"There
is no such thing as a non-working mother."
-- Hester Mundis
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