MODERN IFIGENIA

I love my wrinkles. I love my grey hair. In the United States everyone thinks I am crazy for this perspective, but then I ran across this article which kind of captures the premise of my sentiments: Why I love My Ugly Body . To me, grey hairs and wrinkles are signs that I am living my life. If I live my life productively, happily and successfully, I should have many greys and many wrinkles. For every serious life challenge I have overcome, I have a series of recently earned greys to show for it. For every life experience where I cried a lot or laughed a lot, I have wrinkles to show for it. In other words, by the time I die, my body should be wasted away, otherwise my time on earth was wasted. I just can't imagine what kind of life one could live where there was no laughter, no tears, no challenges, no accomplishments.

That is the question I receive closer to every election day. My friends, family, acquaintances ask me for my opinion. The thing is that I rarely have an answer for them. I can provide quite cogent explanations for who I will be voting for, but I don't know who YOU should vote for. Each year individuals are surprised by what follows their uttering of that question. I ask "What are your most important values?" "How do you judge people, by past performance or by what they say?" "How do you think people make decisions; by deeply held values or by incentives and disincentives?" They are often surprised that I don't push a particular candidate. They are also surprised that I don't strategize much; by that I mean, I don't choose a candidate based on "viability" or campaign slogans or fundraising ability. I choose candidates whose priorities are similar to mine. Here is the thing, I am old and I am deeply concerned about my legacy...

"Whatever your destiny has in store, it is always love that finds you and not the other way around. That is why we must learn to listen."                              ---Roger Housden

Somewhere between Central, PA and Pocahontas County, WV There is something about hitting your mid-30's. Specially when you have accomplished a lot in your time. You start to really assess how you are spending your time. I now care more about how happy I have spent my time than I am about how productive I have been. For a while I thought this was a sign of growth, I had matured, and because of that I was probably not going to  be maturing more anytime soon. My next lesson I believed was scheduled to be learned in my early 40's. However, I went on a trip to Pocahontas County, WV. I stayed in a very small town with a population of just over one thousand. The nearest movie theater was about 45 miles away and there were very few shops or things to do. I wanted this as I needed a respite from my hectic life and have learned to cherish solitude. I was looking for peace. Alas, I ended up finding something else. I ended up entertaining myself hiking and taking a closer look a...

It wasn't until I was 13 years old that I learned I was fat. That was the year I moved to the United States and began to have a difficult time finding clothes that fit appropriately. I never really thought about that change until much later when I would look back on childhood photos and was surprised by how well my clothes fit, and how well-dressed I mostly was. As someone who is very fashionably challenged, I was surprised that at some point in time, I knew how to dress well...and I seemed to have lost the skill once I had many clothing options. When did I lose that skill? I began to explore that phenomena and quickly came to an odd realization. In the U.S. I clearly always had more clothing options that I ever did in Venezuela. Ready-made clothes in the U.S. were affordable so everyone could buy them. That was the key, in Venezuela, ready-made clothes were very expensive, so not too many people purchased them. In fact, I don't remember my mom buying anything ready-mad...

There is much discussion about federal funds for a Women's History Museum to be located on the Washington Mall. In a surprising move, Michelle Bachman has become one of the most outspoken opponents of these plans. When I first saw the initial headline, I assumed that since she was a Republican her concern was purely a fiscal one. As it turns out, her concern is really that the only women in a women's history museum would be women who made history, and since more-often-than-not, history-making women are feminists, she would loathe to support such people. Many have mocked Michelle Bachman for this "concern." I don't know how I feel about this. I have often run into men who have no intellect, skills or heart who feel perfectly suited to make comments on subjects they have no knowledge about. So in some ways, I feel that Michelle Bachman might have been the accidental result of the feminist movement. We did ask for equality, not necessarily substance.