Congratulations! Our Salon Blog family's gotten larger!

Blogs numbered 2000 and 2001 were launched this weekend.

That's more than 450 blog numbers since this blog was started in September.

While others may think that a plethora of bloggers dilutes the medium, I think not.  Something much bigger and better will ultimately come out of this growing critical mass.

Blog, babies, blog!

7:11:50 PM    comment []

RantsCounterRants: Jane Fonda pulls endowment from Harvard…

According to a report by AP, Ms. Fonda pulled the balance of the largest endowment ever given to Harvard; the grant was intended for the study of the impact of gender in education.  Although the grant had been made in 2001, Harvard had yet to name a program leader.

“University officials called the action a mutual decision, citing the weak economy and President Lawrence H. Summers' policy that research centers should be established only when there is faculty leadership and funding for the future.”

What’s the beef, 12.5 million in private funding isn’t enough to start and fund a research program?  Harvard, a preeminent school, cannot find a qualified program leader with an enormous grant in hand?  Could the school not see that this program could help both boys and girls if applied properly?

I lay this squarely at the feet of Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard’s president – former economist for the Reagan Administration, if the name doesn’t ring a bell.

Any chance that right-wing conservatism killed this program?

4:48:06 PM    comment []

Reconciliation…

My daughter is a creature of the earth.  In spite of her sprite-like appearance, she’s firmly grounded, rooted on terra firma.  She loves art of all kinds, has a horrible soft spot for animals of all kinds.  At the age of two she told me she wanted to be a doctor; every time she heard a siren in the distance, she would worry that someone was hurt and needed help.  Although she’s got a quick mind for numbers, she’s apt to use this skill in money matters.  All things that keep her tied to the present life, this space right here.

My son, on the other hand, has been making planes since he could first put two Legos together.  Every thing he can get his hands on becomes a plane – worse, a space ship.  He wants to fly in the worst way, anywhere, everywhere, running in circles with his arms spread wide or vicariously through invisible pilots on paper airplanes and spacecraft made from every conceivable scrap of paper.  He’s scared yet happy when we fly on vacation, eager to watch the planes coming and going on the tarmac, excited when we take off.

I have no fears for my daughter.  She’ll become a doctor, a veterinarian, a corporate controller; she’ll be here with both feet on the ground.  The highest heights she seeks are at the top of the arc of the backyard swing, and no higher.

I am afraid for my son, though.  He always seeks to get above it all, look down from the top of the tree house.  When he’s not above it all, he’s thinking of it.  I don’t want to kill off this drive I see in him to leave this earth by flying free and high above it.  And yet I can see now he will some day. 

I’ve been here before, seen this early seed and what comes of it.  His stepbrother played at his age in the sandbox, covered with dirt at every chance to push trucks and bulldozers around.  He always enjoyed heavy equipment, adored his grandfather’s tractors and going for rides on them.  Now he’s in heavy equipment in the Armed Forces.  I’ll say no more on that.

It’s hard to admit, that I’m really afraid for me, not wanting to go through the fear that parents must face as their children reach the fruition of their years and ripen into adulthood.  You can see the apple in the blossom; try as one might, the blossom will not keep.  It becomes an apple, ready to be picked. 

I can see it now, in my son as his stepbrother before him, hinting at that he'll become in the years ahead.  This little boy will grow up and turn that dream into reality, leave the ground behind him.  I will be there to encourage him since that’s my job; it’s what I’m bound to do as a mother, with love.

Between now and then, I’ll somehow have to come to grips with the fact that doing this mother’s job well requires reconciliation, between my fear and my love.  And hope like hell after years of encouragement and motherly adoration that I’ll have had nothing to fear after all.

2:00:24 PM    comment []