Woman Power

Wednesday night I invited a girlfriend of mine out to this book promotional event offered through the Commonwealth Club: This is Not the Life I Ordered by Deborah Collins Stephens, Michealene Cristini Risely, Jackie Speier, and Jan Yanehiro.

As you might suspect, this was a really woman-heavy event. The few men that were there could be pegged immediately: Tech Guy, Backstage Manager, Somebody's Husband (there were about half a dozen of these), and the two old codgers from the Muppet Show (they show up to everything, don't they?). Women from all walks of life filled the room. I'm sure the estrogen levels were through the roof!

I do not mock in earnest; this was a great event. These women had some startling tales to tell. Remember Jonestown? Jackie Speier was there. She was part of the congressional delegation sent down to investigate. When the whole massacre thing went down, she was shot five times at point blank range and left bleeding on the tarmac of the airstrip for 22 hours before the rescue teams arrived. And that was only the beginning of her story...

Each of these women have lived through a tremendous amount of grief and tragedy, and yet here they were standing before us, bouyant, successful, and alive. Their emphasis, and that of their book, is that to survive women need to do what they do best: network and talk. But what I really appreciated was their focus that this idea was on not forming a pity-party network. Yes, we all need to vent; yes, we all need sympathy in times of grief; but what we need most of all are simple, practical steps to guide us through the grief and beyond. This is about using the support of our friends to survive and thrive.

In their book, they quote the late great Marlene Dietrich: "It's the friends you can call at four in the morning that really matter."

Yeah.