Our special spring PROGRAM (Suffrage Wagon Cafe, open since 2015)
Suffrage Wagon Cafe presents: “Where are our friends now?”
This month we’re visiting with Regina Ress who brought to our attention on January 2, 2018 the work at New York University the university had been doing in spreading the story of the early women’s rights movement to students and the public.
THE STORY IN 2018 COMPARED TO NOW…
Here’s what she had to say in 2018 about keeping the story of the early women’s rights movement alive: From Regina’s pen.
Sharing stories is a gift. Thank you, Regina!
AN UPDATE FROM REGINA RESS
Now Regina is sharing her thoughts on March 17, 2020. In 2018 Regina played the role of suffrage activist Carrie Chapman Catt at NYU’s special storytelling program during Women’s History Month. Now, she’s bringing 2020 into her thoughts and expressions.
May the net hold
by Regina Ress ~
Originally posted in 2012, upon returning from two months of volunteering with children in Baños, Ecuador, this is an addendum which brings my musings up to date as Covid-19 races around the world.
Layers of clouds every shade of white. Blue-white, grey-white, yellow , pink…chalk-white. White, the absence of color, but which reflects and refracts light. Some of the clouds are tinted a delicate purple white. A rainbow of white.
The 737 had pierced each layer of cloud and rose above them all, giving a sweeping view of the tops of Ecuador’s chain of volcanoes, some of which were also white, snow-covered and reflecting the equatorial morning light. We flew across the equator, the “middle of the Earth,” that artificial line which divides south from north. The clouds admit to so such boundary.
Who creates boundaries? We do. National frontiers that demand documents; tribal systems that demand allegiance; gender roles that can bind feet or minds, to name a few.
Now the clouds are thinning out, a few wisps of condensation between the plane and the ocean. The world here is one of air and water. Fire? The roar outside the plane’s windows indicate a fire contained, channeled to move the heavier elements through time and space. A directed burn, controlled and used to move earth in a straight line home.
“Back to reality,” the young backpacker from Vancouver said to me in the airport security line. I responded, “Vancouver is not reality.” But I knew what he meant— home. To the city, where the power of the elements is tamed, bounded, buried, forgotten. Even though vows are made to keep the awareness, once back in the city, human business intrudes upon the magic. It take a lot of work to maintain elemental connection when the layers now moved through are sidewalks, subways, jobs, politics, protests, bills, ads… the elements of life back in “reality.” But back I have come.
More will be written. But first, I must hit the sidewalks and subways, deal with jobs, try to ignore the politics, join the protests, and pay some bills. I will, per usual, ignore the ads.
ADDENDUM from Regina~ March 17, 2020, as Covid-19 takes much of our attention.
While many of us meet together online this St. Patrick’s Day 2020, seeking community, seeking information, seeking new skills (such as how to meet together on line!), Ecuador, I hear, has closed its borders. Indeed, many countries are closing their borders. But viruses know no borders or boundaries. We are all in this quantumly entangled world together. Our electronic web of connection now serves for handshakes and hugs. May the net hold.
May the net hold.
CONTACT: reginaress.com
Thank you, Regina, for sharing your insights. It’s great to hear from you.
Keep in touch with us. We have been publishing at Suffrage Wagon News Channel since 2009.
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