I was thinking of my women, Clara, Annie and Amelia, and how I am not at all athletic as they each were. Then the thought came to me that they were also, each one, very aware of being women; and loved to dress up and wear pretty clothes. When they went to Europe they bought expensive clothes in Paris. Clara even wore rouge and eyeliner and dyed her hair when it began to go gray. People don't think of them with fancy clothes, looking beautiful, or with ladylike manners ~ but those are their other sides; not just the tomboys, living in men's worlds, breaking molds, setting records. They were each caring, good women, who gave over most of their lives to consciously inspiring and encouraging others. They are to be followed not just for the prominent and famous feats of their lives; but even more for the subtle, everyday examples they were. Not that they didn't become vocal on issues important to them. They did. They were very outspoken on women's rights and on treating all people with love and respect. We think we know people and like to put them in neat little boxes ~ but they, and we, don't fit. We keep oozing out and filling up another box, only to move from that, to still another box. Like the kaleidoscope ~ we keep changing, and yet are still the original that we are, no two alike, constantly recreating beautiful colors and patterns. Isn't it amazing ~ and yet so amazingly simple?

Susan, Marie and Edna seem not to have a common denominator. Susan, tall and brash, her "cause" like an obsession; Marie, small, quiet, shy, yet science was her obsession; and Edna, who's motto was to work hard and have fun. Susan and Edna never married but for different reasons. Susan didn't want to be held down and saw marriage as a prison for women. Edna said she would have loved to be married to someone she loved, but the men she fell in love with didn't love her ~ and the ones who loved her, she didn't love, at least not romantically. But Marie did find the big romantic love of her life, the one man who was like a part of herself. But he died early, leaving her in a depression that lasted the rest of her life. So, perhaps it is that their differences are the key, political activist, scientist and writer because each one furthered the rights of women in her own way. The lesson here is, I think, that we don't have to all fall from the same tree to accomplish similar ends. We can each walk our own individual path, be true to our own inner voice and be magnificently successful. Now that, Friends, is inspiring to me!

Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman were much similar and yet very different from each other. They were both significant, active women in their own rights, as well as wives of presidents. The same age, both lost their fathers tragically and never really got over it. Both came from political families and both were blond and blue-eyed; but Eleanor was incredibly wealthy, born into New York society. Bess' family was reasonably well off and prominent (but in Independence, Missouri; not New York). Both married men against family wishes and both had problems with overbearing, domineering mothers; in Eleanor's case, her mother-in-law. Eleanor bore six children and Bess, only one. Bess and her daughter were wonderfully close buddies, in fact; while Eleanor's children, especially her only daughter, were not close with her at all. Both Eleanor and Bess were very involved with their husbands' decisions in politics ~ but with completely different styles, and neither woman wanted to be First Lady. Eleanor, of course, was "way out there in front", while Bess guarded her privacy over just about anything else. Bess had no interest in being in the line of fire while Eleanor thrived there. Yet it was Bess who was the warmer mother and wife, while Eleanor was noted for her stiffness and seeming coldness. Bess was an excellent athlete and sports fan, whistling and screaming at games; while Eleanor never learned to play any games to any amount of satisfactory performance. Both wrote letters and both at one time destroyed them to keep their contents forever secret. Two very important First Ladies, at a crucial time in our history.