Today is International Women's Day. I'm reasonably sure holding a celebratory repast at the International House of Pancakes is not considered appropriate, if that's what you were leaning towards. I'm neither an expert on, and certainly not myself, a woman-but more of a visitor, a beyond-interested bystander, on an extended and extensive tour of their world.
I live together with two adult women under one roof, my wife of thirty-odd years (don't get her started on how odd) and our recently-completed-college adult daughter. I am very aware of the importance of closing previously shut closet doors when through rummaging around inside. I know well the notion of turning off a light I turned on when entering a room when I leave it. And there is nothing about a well known lid on a well-known seat in a particularly utilitarian room about which I have not been thoroughly schooled.
In recent days, in this country, women of all ages, and the people who love them and live with them, were reminded of how far along the road to equality they have come, but how long, still, the journey ahead is, thanks to a medical coverage discussion that morphed into a political litmus test and then became Searching for Hester Prynne's Goodbar before being doused in gasoline and set aflame by a prescription drug addict with a microphone. However, this, too, will pass.
Those who celebrate our continuing advances in achieving equality will eventually revel in triumphs that today are unimaginable but by tomorrow will be commonplace. I came across a thought the other day (I have so few of my own I almost didn't recognize what it was) from Joseph Conrad (Mistah Kurtz, he dead. That Joseph Conrad) which captures, I feel, the moment and many of the moments so many women live through every day: "Being a woman is a terribly difficult task since it consists principally in dealing with men." Perhaps speaking only for me, thank you.
-bill kenny
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