It is so easy to lose sight of what is important. I can do it in a minute. This morning I got to run with three amazing women. It was fun. It was 7 miles. It was hilly. It was all good. But I was exhausted. Not enough sleep from tying myself up in knots. The stress. But it is self-created. What happened to letting the irritants of the day just roll off? I can be part of the problem instead of part of the solution in a minute. So, instead of that, I will focus on the positive.
I brought my boss over to the house today. When I introduced my daughter, she looked him in the eye as she shook his hand, she smiled a little and said “It’s nice to meet you.” Wow – so poised and grown up. No longer the painfully shy four year old who would stare at her shoes.
My older son engaged him in detailed conversations giving him suggestions for his island in Second Life. He behaved pleasantly and appropriately.
The little one wasn’t home. But when he did get home, I overheard him tell his dad that he left one shoe in the bathroom and the other shoe in Boston. Boston? Why Boston? Who knows, but it was pretty darned cute.
Tomorrow, I will be part of the solution. All day.
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Today is Monday Part 4. Hills and Valleys and this is a valley. Among other irritants, I have come face to face with rampant sexism and it ticks me off. Yes, we have come a long way. Forty years ago Katherine Switzer was running the Boston Marathon as officials tried to pull her off the course and “get the girl out” of the race. But there is still so far to go…
On Monday I heard a speaker talking about the game industry say that it is the only place where his accent and the color of his skin don’t make a difference. I asked him if the same was true for women. He stammered for a moment before saying “Well, it’s different. Woman just want to have babies so they aren’t up to doing the work.” I nearly died. Instead of calling him a sexist ass and storming out of the room, I politely said “Interesting. Thank you.”
On Tuesday my daughter complained that her brother’s friends kept saying “Girls are stupid.” She knows this is ridiculous, but does the boy who is saying it? Is our society continuing to perpetuate sexist messages from a tender age?
Yesterday a man tried to pass me on the canal making some light hearted running banter about how hard I had been to pass. While I know it was throw away comments from a run, I couldn’t let him pass. I sped up.
Today, while inquiring about the health of our regular barista who just had knee surgery, another patron said “He is such a girl! All he does is complain ‘Oh my knee hurts.’ He is such a girl!” I was so offended by his comments, I wanted to challenge him for a run. Why couldn’t he have substituted “wimp” for girl? Or something equally innocuous?
A man said to me a few days ago “When are you going to accept that this is a male dominated world?” Never. That’s when.
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