It's International Women's Day '09!

March 8th is International Women's Day!

According to the IWD website, IWD is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

IWD is a national holiday in:China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. SOMEBODY, or some bodies (!), had a clue in those countries! :-)

Not here. Not yet, anyway. The USA has no official holiday celebrating great women in herstory. March by the way, is Women's History Month, in case you didn't know.

We have holidays here in the USA to commemorate great men: George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But no women!

Why?

Some might say, well, there's Mother's Day. That is important: I certainly respect mothers because I feel they are most often the glue that holds a family together, and they do SO much for so little in return. I tend to gravitate toward mom-like women and friends. They bring help bring life into the world and are the primary caretakers as we grow up. I know I could not have thrived without my mom's love and nuturing. :-)

But Mother's Day is not a paid, federal holiday. Perhaps people already feel we have the day off anyway, as Mother's Day falls on a Sunday.

What about all the other women--women who are not mothers, by choice or circumstance or whatever? Are we less worthy as women--as human beings, if we have not brought life into the world? Surely NOT! %-0

How about women who have made and continue to make great contributions to society: scientists, educators, environmentalists, physicians, nurses, community leaders, spiritual leaders, artists, writers, musicians, and activists who work hard to bring awareness of social injustices and improvements to ameliorate the suffering of others, just to name a few? The underpaid, overworked, and sometimes abused domestic workers? The many women tucked away and forgotten in nursing homes across the country? .

Who would I offer up as a candidate or two or more for the nation to celebrate and commemorate--worthy of having the country take a day off (and be paid!) in her honor?

I can think of some:

• Harriet Tubman: (c. 1820–1913) African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War.
• Eleanor Roosevelt: (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), civil rights advocate, internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition.
• Jane Addams: (1860-1935) founder of the U.S. Settlement House Nobel Peace Prize and one of the first American women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Rosa Parks: (1913-2005) African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement".
• Susan B. Anthony: (1820-1906) prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States.

That's just a start. I know there's many more. The lifelong work of those women alone are worthy of historical note alone. It's HERstory!


Imagine this: national holiday to commemorate a prominent woman (or more) AND a national holiday to celebrate International Women's Day!! Wouldn't that be fabulous? :-D

I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. :-(

Sure, most people know women make up half the population, but they sure don't appreciate that fact via apathy toward violence against women, unequal pay for equal work, and myriad of other woman-unfriendly facts of life.

But I can still hope. Hope that the misogynists of the world--in particular, the religious ones who would keep girls and women brainless and backward, would realize that their hateful, narrow, controlling view of women is only keeping humanity from moving forward.


As long as there are injustices committed against women both here and abroad, and as long as I am alive and breathing, I will continue to stand up for women's rights. Women's rights are human rights. Period.

I want to live in a progressive world, not a regressive one!



Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all.

~Emily Dickinson, (1830-1886) American poet

Snot Kiss...Slobber Kiss...Kiss Kiss :-)

Kiss: The anatomical juxtaposition
of two orbicularis oris muscles
in a state of contraction.

--Henry Gibbons, Sr., MD (1808-1884)





Last night, my 20 month-old nephew gave me a snot kiss. His nose was running. Clear liquid running between his nose to his lips. But I don't see him often...and he's awfully cute, easy-going, and easily loveable. So how could I deny him his gesture of affection toward me?

I couldn't! Isn't that love? :-)

I did, however wipe my mouth afterwards. Sorry kiddo!

Earlier during the evening, he gave me a couple of kisses--but they were only quasi-snot kisses: his nose was wet, but the liquid wasn't flowing...yet. It's difficult for me to refuse kisses from love-y little people, especially when they are relatives!

Yesterday, I played with my father in-law's dog. He came close to giving me a slobber kiss. He's a real funny dog (still a puppy) and inspires me to be carefree; however, as cute as I think he is--petting him, playing with him, and rubbing his belly is good love from me. I'm not into dog kissing, as in: you can lick my face or limbs all you want, and it's a wonderful thing.

No, it isn't.

Fil's (father in-law) dog is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. An outside dog to the bone. Dog lovers say dogs are clean (in response to those who are horrified by the thought of a dog licking their face). My question to them is: do they really know where their dog has been, and what it has sniffed, touched, and eaten?

I have witnessed fil's dogs in the past (and present) munching on a large pile of chicken shit on the edge of a tractor, or picking up a nice oblong piece of deer turd in the woods on a freezing cold day. Does it taste delicious to them? I'm guessing it might, having observed the excitement with which they go after it, but I wouldn't want to be a canine for the purposes of discovering the culinary delights of another creature's shit.

I do, however, think I possess a doggy-like nose, which I have written about in the past. Dogs have a powerful olfactory sense; so do I! Which leads me back to slobbery dog kisses: dog breath or a wet doggy is a fast turn off. I don't know where you've been and I don't want to know! I still like you, but I can do without the kisses, thank you very much. :-) Woof!

The best kisses, of course, come from my honey! :-)) No runny nose, no bad breath...though it happens to both of us on occasion. I won't go into detail, but all I have to say is:

life is good if you can exchange good kisses with your life partner, in good times as well as in not-so-good times. :-)

I love kisses (except from four-legged creatures)!



Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English Romantic Poet, Prometheus Unbound