The Resolute Woman

Author: resolutewoman

  • Sanctimonious?

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    “True, madam, those who have most virtue in their mouths, have least of it in their bosom,” Marlow says to Kate in Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer.” I recently saw the play at Shakespeare in the Park in Dallas, and I discovered, during a little bit of online investigation, that Oliver Goldsmith disliked the…

  • An observer of life?

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    “I have lived, indeed, in the world, madam; but I have kept little company,” Marlow says to Kate in Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer.” “I have been but an observer upon life, madam, while others were enjoying it.” I recently saw the play performed at Shakespeare in the Park in Dallas, and I was…

  • Caution can be pathetic

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in

    Goethe says that boldness is powerful. And, Mary Oliver, in her poem “Moments,” proclaims that caution can be pathetic. Here’s part of the poem. There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled…. Your heart is beating, isn’t it? You’re not in chains, are you? There is nothing more pathetic than caution When headlong might…

  • Faith and reason

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    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Awe is “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that you don’t immediately understand,” says Dacher Keltner. Dr. Keltner, who says that his favorite emotions are compassion and awe, shared that definition at a May 31, 2016, Arts & Letters Live presentation in Dallas. He also quoted Emerson: “In the woods, we…

  • If you want to be happy

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    resolutewoman
    in

    His Holiness, the Dali Lama says: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Dacher Keltner, who says that his favorite emotions are compassion and awe, shared that quote at a May 31, 2016, Arts & Letters Live presentation in Dallas. Dr. Keltner teaches at Berkeley…

  • The beginning of a dream

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    “A dream begins with a dreamer,” Harriet Tubman once said. Tubman, who soon will be featured on $20 bills, was born a slave. After she escaped to freedom, she returned to the South again and again to rescue more than 300 slaves.

  • Not worth a sixpence

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in

    Harriet Tubman, who soon will be featured on $20 bills, was born a slave. After she escaped to freedom, she returned to the South again and again to rescue more than 300 slaves. Author Isabel Wilkerson, interviewed on the Diane Rehm show on National Public Radio, reported that one master beat Tubman and then declared…

  • Lessons from Ginger, my canine friend

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Ginger, my faithful companion, who is sleeping now on the dog bed next to my desk, turned 11 last month. Despite her old age, she bolted out the back door yesterday, sure that this would finally be her lucky day and she would catch a squirrel. “She’s still frisky,” Dr. Allison Merrill, our veterinarian, told…

  • The brethren laughed heartily

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    resolutewoman
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    In 1853, Sarah Grimke, abolitionist and feminist, was invited to sit in the chair of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. “As I took my place,” she said later, “I involuntarily exclaimed: ‘Who knows, but this chair may one day be occupied by a woman.’ The brethren laughed heartily.” In 1873, the Supreme Court…

  • Would you hire Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    In 1959, RBG graduated from Columbia Law at the top of her class, but she could barely get a job. No one wanted to hire a woman lawyer. In 1963, RBG became the second woman to teach full-time at Rutgers School of Law. She didn’t get paid as much as the men on the faculty.…