Sometimes things seem to align. Right now the writings of several people I read, the comments on my posts, and just knowing and having met many of these women writers in the last year or so convinces me that there is a wisdom brewing.
Many of us write from monikers real, imagined, or somewhere in between out in cyberspace, that suggest midpoints in midlife, although I think we all know that the midpoint of our lives is apt to be behind us unless we live to be over 100.
I cannot speak for the other women, but I know that for me I have been thinking about the ending of individual lives and how we personally feed into the human legacy. I realize that I might be a bit young to be thinking about what we leave behind, but I guess I tend to be an outlier in most things. As an anthropologist I am intrigued by what we as individuals add to the nebulous collective of knowledge and structures and rules that we call culture. Recently facing the reality of probably losing another brother in the near future brings the theoretical into the world of personal, practical, nitty-gritty reality.
I am 57. I am an elder of the Late Boomer Cohort within the so-called Baby Boom Generation. Sid Vicious and I were born within a week of each other and I have taken on the comparison as a mantle so as to show that Punks obviously delineated something significant breaking away from our older Hippie brothers and sisters. I try to use female examples wherever possible, but I have not found an easily recognized icon of my own gender that fits the bill as well as Sid does. Patti Smith rose up in the rock world at the same time as Sid, but she is one of the oldest of the Boomer Gen. I guess that shows that women of the Boom couldn’t sneak through the cracks into the new cultural paradigm until a critical mass of change burst through the barriers and opened a new ecosystem, or at least a new niche, defined by a new level of open communication and personal determination.
Women began to really come into their own when reliable birth control allowed larger and larger numbers of women to direct the course of their lives more than at any point in human history. The later born boomers are the women who were just becoming sexually active as Roe v. Wade was decided. The 1970s were where the trends of the 1960s became real in the lives of the culture as a whole. The last half of the Boomer Generation are the first women to have had self-determination for all of their adult lives. We are also the first group of women to have a level of comfort with the interconnectivity that the online world brings with it.
This is a shift of seismic proportions that is still playing out as human culture works this development into the mix. Women who are of an age to become a wise woman, an elder, to sit at the grandmothers’ counsel right now have perspective that was impossible to fathom even a generation ago.
The balance of power is shifting. Let us continue to work toward wisdom, as the women elders we are developing into have more important work in preservation of the world and humanity, as part of that living system, than any generation has faced. We are up to the task. We are finding our way, making our way.
So well said! We have a lot to say; let’s hope the right people are listening.
You’re right about owning our wisdom. And your note about Sid Vicious made me laugh. Last week in Chicago there is a huge (incredible) show about David Bowie’s life. I wondered if I was young enough to go to the show…and then I realized that he is 67! I went, and it was an amazing experience.
You’re so right. SEISMIC PROPORTIONS. A big shift.
Well said! Thank goodness the power is shifting!
So true. I feel the shift. I’m glad to be a part of it.
I can hear the choir singing in harmony Nancy! Maybe if we keep singing and turning up the volume, the seismic shift will turn into pivot!
I do hope our generation of women, as we enter our elder circle, can hold hands with the young ones behind us as they move forward. Some of the images of young women that the media would have us believe represent the next generation are not women at their best.
We do have to connect with and support all women of all ages. We have to be the media!
I sure HOPE that the balance of power is shifting. Powerful forces are aligned to put women back in the kitchen !
Love you, Merna
Oh Merna, you commented! I am so glad! Those forces trying to put us back in the kitchen only have power because we believe they do. I for one have quit believing they are anything but buffoons, and the more people we get to stop believing that those idiots have any real power (or intelligence) the more quickly a new cooperative paradigm can ascend.
Very well said. As the mother of 3 daughters and 6 granddaughters I can tell you the media does not always do their generations justice.
I am so sorry about your brother.
Thank you. I have a daughter, a step-daughter, and two grand-daughters. And the media does not do anything to depict them appropriately or created intelligent content for them! And thank you for your mention of my brother. I awakened politically when I was eleven because of him. He’s tough, but you can only fight horrific injuries for so many decades.
I have always believed female energy has the power to change the world. Seismic change can’t come soon enough.
We do recreate culture as we teach our children and grandchildren, in that there is the potential for great change. You are a seismic shifter! Let’s keep it going!
Women are the strength, the wisdom and the love of the earth and all that lives there. I believe that to my core. Long live the shift. Bring it on, baby!
You are one of the women shifting the perception of what acceptable and normal is by using your voice proudly, with joy and intelligence, don’t stop!
I love this pos, it’s so inspiring… we dream, we’re surrounded by wise people and we’re strong! 🙂
Thanks so much for the comment and feedback, Lily! We are a community of amazing women writers.
You always have the most interesting spin on the world. Thanks for another thoughtful piece.
Birth control was the game-chamger, of that there can be no doubt. I find it shocking how many women would see this fundamental cornerstone of female self-determination taken away in the name of religion, or as some form of cultural external control over individual women’s sexual behavior that will either keep women from their slutty behavior or make sure they are sufficiently punished for it by unwanted pregnancy and parenthood.
As a statistical youngster of the late boomer cohort who really doesn’t even see herself as a boomer, I can’t help but stand in wonder over how different my life, and indeed myself, would have been if I’d merely been born a few years earlier.