October 3, 2008 9:01 AM
Purcellville Gazette - my most recent columns
For ten years, I've written a biweekly column called Close to Home which has been carried in succession by the Novato Advance (CA), the Loudoun Times-Mirror, and currently the Purcellville Gazette.
I love having a column and it's taught me a lot about writing. Writing to a limit of 500 words takes a lot of discipline. As Mark Twain said, "I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have time." Plus having a regular deadline makes you productive: in 10 years, I've written 260 columns - many of which have been expanded or tweaked to find their way into other venues - like Chicken Soup for the Soul books.
I really am enjoying my current home in the Gazette as people seem to read it! I got more feedback in my first five weeks there than I got from five years at the Times-Mirror. Just another example of how losing something can free you up for something even better :) Does your life work like that too?
Anyway, you can find my articles every other week at the Purcellville Gazette's site, which allows you to download the entire paper.
Here's are my last two columns - one heavy, one light:
We've come a long way, Baby Trig!Two weeks ago when Sarah Palin accepted her party's VP nomination, she brought along a little extra someone whose very existence - suddenly center stage - would ignite a long overdue national discussion of what it means to welcome a child with Down syndrome.
The conversation actually began in the 1950s when a few brave mothers and fathers looked their doctors in the eye and said they wanted to take their babies home - extra chromosome and all - ignoring the standard advice: "Your baby is a Mongoloid. We know a place we can send him. We recommend you go back and try again."
Parents of today's children with Down syndrome owe a debt of gratitude to those pioneers who just said no to warehousing "defective" babies; who let go of their grief for the child they had expected and learned to appreciate the unexpected love and joy of the child they had.
It was a quiet revolution which taught us that love indeed was the answer, that when raised in a loving family, children with Down syndrome were capable of far more than we'd ever dreamed.
The public school system helped in this process, prodded by parents and advocates who insisted that every child deserved an education. And while it may have started with trailers behind the school, today our kids - instead of being segregated and stigmatized - are part of classrooms across the country.
The full inclusion of these children has been beneficial for all. The generation that's grown up rubbing elbows with kids like Trig Palin has learned to value qualities beyond intelligence and appearance. Several years ago, the students at Loudoun Valley High voted a beautiful young woman with Down syndrome - Lauren Welsh, now a student at George Mason University - homecoming queen. Truly, her classmates had discovered something special about life.
In many ways it's a wonderful world Trig is on his way to encountering. A world full of family, friends, and professionals who understand his needs and are eager to help him reach his potential.
But even as the quality of life has dramatically improved for individuals with Down syndrome, 90 percent of those diagnosed prenatally are aborted before they are ever given a chance to change hearts or make their mark on society.
Those of us with children with Down syndrome - no matter where we stand politically - have been torn by these conflicting messages from our culture: Yes, your child is worth our society's investment in resources and time but if it's not too late, Maybe you should just get rid of him and try again.
Because his mother chose life, Trig is privileged to live to experience the blessings of being a baby, a child, and eventually a man with Down syndrome in a world that is becoming increasingly more open, more accepting of those with special needs.
But because his mom is also now a candidate for Vice President, he is also entering the national stage. The Palin family has shown through example that having a baby with Down syndrome is not a tragedy. During her mom's acceptance speech, when Piper Palin licked her hand to lovingly smooth her brother's hair and as Baby Trig was passed from one set of arms to another - including Cindy McCain's - we saw a picture of the exquisite tenderness a child with Down syndrome brings out in those around him.
In a debate that has remained theoretical for many people, Trig makes it personal. When Sarah Palin hugged , then turned him toward us so we could see those sweetly almond-shaped eyes, he truly became the Face Seen Round the World.
October 3, 2008
Following fashion's yellow brick roadBushy brows are back - or so I hear via the Los Angeles Times. They may take a while to caterpillar crawl their way to Purcellville and points east, though
What I want to know is Who decides this stuff anyway?
Who decides that one year it's bare midriffs, one year cleavage? One year clingy T's and and the next "peasant" blouses just inches from here to maternity. One year straight hair and the next layers of curls. One year skirts above the knee, the next year below. Tailored jackets, short jackets, swing tops.
One year capris and the next Bermuda shorts - yeah, that one fizzled, thank the Lord. I tell you, they'll have to work pretty hard to wrestle us away from our dearly-beloved capris - which I remember my mama calling pedal-pushers.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose - my inner Frenchwoman reminds me. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Last week I was catching up with oldest daughter Samantha while her five kids and my five youngest played in the pool. I mentioned folding up the legs of jeans - a trend which seems to have filtered down slowly from New York, where I saw it first a couple years ago.
"I don't get that one at all," Sam said. "It just seems silly."
Gulp. She obviously hadn't seen me for a while as that has become pretty much my everyday uniform. At least until something better comes along.
I remember in the 60s when every woman over 13 - no matter how firm or flabby - wore a girdle. Pantyhose sent those monstrous contraptions to the fashion graveyard - or maybe beyond to a hotter eternity. But then they've made a comeback in recent years re-baptized "shapewear" and admittedly more comfortable and kind.
Comfortable and kind is really where it's at today. Compared to what I grew up with, today's clothes are just so much easier to wear. And don't you agree that whoever invented the 2% spandex addition to jeans deserves a ticker tape parade? Or maybe even sainthood?
But what about shoes? Early on, I developed a healthy addiction, convinced that the purpose of feet was to show off what you put on them. In fact, I coined a motto:
"Life's too short to wear ugly shoes."
As women age - despite our best efforts to stand firm - the natural follow-up seems obvious: "Life's too long to wear unfriendly shoes." But by the time I got there, they'd gotten wise and started making some non-ugly shoes for women over 40.. All I can say is Hallelujah! And can I get a witness?
Still, as a repentant radical feminist, I have to say I LOVE seeing high heels make a comeback. In fact since a certain someone joined the political fray, red heels have reportedly been flying off the shelves - as though lots of women decided to sign up for a sophisticated remix of Dorothy's journey to Oz.
Count me in. While an investment in bushy brows offers little return, I'm thinking with a pair of red peep-toes - closing my eyes, clicking my heels together three times, and reminding myself "There's no place like home!" - I'd be up to just about anything!
