The Resolute Woman

Author: resolutewoman

  • A great figure among moderns

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    I recently saw “End of the Day—Nightscape IV” by Louise Nevelson at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Nevelson, the plaque next to the art work explains, did not achieve critical acclaim until the 1950s when she was included in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The primary…

  • A salute to Ruth Bernerito

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    I’m wearing a wrinkle-free cotton shirt today in honor of Ruth Bernerito. Bernerito, whose death at 97 was reported recently in the Los Angeles Times, was born in 1916 in New Orleans. After she graduated from high school at 14 and started taking classes at Newcomb College, she was “one of two women allowed to…

  • Inspiration from Alice Munro

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    Alice Munro, who recently won a 2013 Nobel Prize in literature, once was a mother with young children. She wanted to write, but she didn’t have time to produce a novel. Instead, Munro, now 82, wrote short stories. “For years and years, I thought that stories were just practice till I got time to write…

  • Should women drive?

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    A cleric in Saudia Arabia, where women are banned from driving, recently warned that driving hurts women’s childbearing prospects. Sheik Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan explained that driving “affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upward.” As a result, women drivers could have “children with clinical problems of varying degrees.” We read about this preposterous claim…

  • The all-knowing, ruthless beauty god

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    I look into my mirror. What’s wrong with my hair? Are those new wrinkles? Have I gained weight? Who’s talking? The all-knowing, ruthless beauty god, says Cheryl Strayed. We all know that looks really don’t matter and that, actually, they do matter to most of us, explains Strayed in her book Tiny Beautiful Things—Advice on…

  • What happens now?

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    Be flexible, advises Ann Patchett in her book What Now?. Plan for the future, but keep in mind that the future may not be arranged precisely in accordance with your plan. “The secret is finding the balance between going out to get what you want and being open to the thing that actually winds up…

  • Finding wisdom

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    When I was in my 20s, I thought that someday I would wake up with grownup wisdom. I would know all of the answers to life’s mysteries and dilemmas. I’m still searching. That’s why I like Ann Patchett’s words in her book What now?. “For the most part, wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks,”…

  • Life as a weaving

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    Remember Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch woman who helped more than 800 Jews escape the Nazis during World War II? When I saw an announcement that the International Ballet Theater is performing “The Weaving,” the dance narrative about the life of this remarkable woman, in Dallas, I was disappointed that I will be out of…

  • It’s time for fall cleaning

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    The United States contains 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space. That’s more than seven square feet for every man, woman and child in the country, says Howard Mansfield, author of Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter, in an article in The Dallas Morning News. “The shed is a symptom of our…

  • In praise of October

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    I ate corny dogs at the State Fair of Texas, the biggest and the best state fair, and recently I enjoyed a piece of my friend Susie’s apple pie. The air is crisper and cooler when I begin my morning walk, and I noticed yellow leaves under the trees in my front yard. “I’m so…