Women's Summit

This weekend was invigorating, exhilarating, and exhausting. But, I hopefully made some good business contacts.

I attended a women's summit this weekend. I was a little wary of attending, as my past experience has been touchy-feely and not get anything done. Well, we haven't gotten anything concrete planned, but we are galvanized and working towards a plan. This is better than the nurturing "it's all right to be female" crap I've gone to in the past.

The day started out with an inspirational speaker. Gee, golly, fun, fun, I thought. But she talked about how to "bump yourself to first class", in other words, how to take advantage of what is going on around you. She put it in three concrete steps that are definitely doable. And, best of all, she didn't guarantee that you would be successful. She asked us how we would feel about ourselves, would we be true to ourselves, if we didn't try?

There were some skills workshops in the afternoon for learning skills we feel we might need to try or for figuring out what we really want to do. All in all, a well-spent day.

S

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I know, I just updated. But I had something else I wanted to say, but it didn't quite belong in the previous update.

In December, when I returned East for the holidays, a friend came up to me with a little story. Her little girl had started school and was having problems with some of the boys in her class. See, she is a bit of a tomboy and enjoys the rough-and-tumble, but the boys were having some problems with her not being a "girl." So they taunted her one day and sent her home nearly in tears. When her mother asked her what was wrong, she said, "The boys called me gay."

Her mother, understanding this was one of the most hurtful things her daughter had been called, said to her, "You know some gay people. Sue is gay." The daughter looked at her mother and smiled. Gay was no longer a dirty word.

I've thought about that story several times since it was told to me. It angers and annoys me that children are encouraged to hurt and slander other children because they act differently or they look different. I am very honored to have been able to ease this little girl's pain.

S