Category Archives: women

Education and reality.

Posted on March 11, 2018 by

This weekend I read Tara Westover’s new memoir Educated in one sitting. The story it tells is compelling: raised in a survivalist, fundamentalist-Mormon family in Idaho, Westover first attends school at age seventeen (her first day at Brigham Young University) … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, higher education, politics, self-reliance, teaching, the past, women | 4 Comments

Greed, hubris, and cramming-through.

Posted on December 2, 2017 by

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sits at her desk, coffee cup and phone nearby, holding a 500-page chunk of paper — the Republican tax bill — she was given an hour to read before the vote. “So,” she begins, “here it is … Continue reading →

Posted in community, corporations, higher education, money, politics, teaching, women | 2 Comments

The Women’s March: here, there, and everywhere.

Posted on January 24, 2017 by

Saturday, January 21, 2017 It felt good to be out on our little town’s main street with a sign in my hand again, surrounded by my friends and students and – despite the chilly fog – determination and hope. As … Continue reading →

Posted in community, Driftless region, politics, resilience, spirit, women | 6 Comments

Dogs in the road: encountering fear.

Posted on September 7, 2014 by

Last Sunday I was finishing up a 2-day, 40-mile bike ride to celebrate my 40th birthday, and it took me past a house where I knew there were dogs.  They’d barked at me before but never left the yard; I … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, biking, resilience, women | 4 Comments

What is this “little extra” – really?

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

Summer is here, with its higher level of activity — and time for me to take two yoga classes a week instead of just one.  Among yoga’s many benefits is a higher level of awareness of your body, what it … Continue reading →

Posted in body, food, mystery, self-reliance, spirit, women, yoga | 2 Comments

Roots.

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

This stem of Hibiscus mutabilis, a.k.a. Confederate rose, flourishes in a Mason jar on my kitchen counter, ready for repotting.  Its mother plant, originally a cutting from my parents’ yard in Alabama, is resprouting too.  Last summer I planted a … Continue reading →

Posted in body, community, gardening, politics, spirit, the past, the South, women | 5 Comments

The Lenten closet.

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

Yesterday I went to Minneapolis to buy some sorely needed new clothes. Just a few good pieces that I was lucky enough to find on sale.  This afternoon — energized by what Marilynne Robinson in Housekeeping called the “swift, watery … Continue reading →

Posted in body, conservation, gratitude, home, money, self-reliance, stuff, women | 4 Comments

Whitney Houston and the women-walls.

Posted on February 17, 2012 by

On Facebook and even email, this picture meets me at every turn, looming, vaguely Inquisitorial.  You want to explain to us why you *need* birth control, young lady?  Depressed by the image and its context — and by work and … Continue reading →

Posted in art, body, culture, politics, self-reliance, women | Leave a comment

Paula Deen and American appetites.

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

“Southern or not, we all live somewhere on a continuum between Tofurky and Terducken.” — Bob Rini Today the news broke that Paula Deen has Type 2 diabetes. <Pause for Inner Moral Battle that probably ends with Guilty, Helpless Succumbing … Continue reading →

Posted in body, community, food, politics, the South, women | 17 Comments

Learning to submit?: Economies of womanhood, personhood, and love.

Posted on November 12, 2011 by

I believe that what rules us is less the material world of goods and services than the immaterial one of whims, assumptions, delusions, and lies; that only by studying this world can we hope to shape how it shapes us; … Continue reading →

Posted in body, community, culture, money, politics, self-reliance, women | 2 Comments