Issue 181 — October 18, 2021
Dear Reader,
It made me as happy as a pumpkin spice cupcake to see this sign on the carousel in Central Park when I walked by it this week…
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Issue 1789— September 27, 2021
[Special Note: Today 9/28/21, my new book Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good is formally birthed into the world. It is incumbent upon me as the author to ask you to buy it, review it, and share it on social media. And seriously, despite the cheesiness I feel making that ask, I do want this book to reach thousands or millions of women like you to help you embrace your power, elevate your intentions, and use the tips and tools in this book to get the lives and careers of your dreams. And what I know is that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. OK? OK! Thank you for your support.]
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“As soon as we can talk about power as a hammer—you can break something with it or you can build something with it— we turn power into a generative, innovative, creative positive idea as the power to,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead at her live and virtual book launch for her latest book, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone's) Good.
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Issue 178 — September 20, 2021
On a spectacular Arizona day in late January, 2020, a day when you can be lulled into thinking all’s right with the world, I was hiking with a friend. Then boom! I tripped on an unseen pebble, put my hand out to catch myself and knew immediately from the snap and the pain that I had broken my wrist. The first broken bone I’d ever had.
It’s never the mountains that trip you up. It’s the pebbles on the path.
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Issue 177 — September 12, 2021
Like most everyone else yesterday on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I relived where I was that day when everything changed.
It was one of those spectacularly beautiful days when it seemed like all was right with the world. I had arrived a little after 8:30am to meet a business colleague for breakfast at Jean-Georges Nougatine, an upscale restaurant just off New York’s Columbus Circle in the Trump International Hotel and Tower. (Ironic? Perhaps.)
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Issue 176 — August 30, 2021
If you want to see me break out into a cold sweat instantly, just say the word “event.” Every time an organization with which I’m involved has an event, my first reaction is “No.”
Not surprisingly, since I’ve been leading nonprofit organizations almost my entire career, and thus on the asking end of the fundraising equation, that probability of cold sweat occurs with some frequency.
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Issue 175 — August 23, 2021
I had so much fun interviewing pianist Marina Arsenijevic in preparation for Take The Lead’s Women’s Equality Day concert.
She talked about how, soon after she arrived in the United States, she told a group of families who like herself had immigrated from Serbia, one of seven countries that war torn Yugoslavia had split into that her dream was to play in Carnegie Hall.
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Issue 173 — July 26, 2021
Two billionaires went into space last week and created a big dust up here on Earth. The debates over whether Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos did something amazing or disgusting raged on social media.
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Issue 172 — July 12, 2021
Last week, I attended my first unmasked, in person, un-social distanced theatrical performance, albeit outdoors. It was pure bliss.
The play was, of course, the thing, and an entertaining one at that. But being in a community of happy theater goers was by far the essence of my joy.
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Issue 171— July 5, 2021
Philanthropist Melinda French Gates stood for a photo op with French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum June 29-July 1, 2021 and discussed the Gates Foundation’s new commitment of $2.1 USD to women’s economic empowerment, family planning, and (Hallelujah! At last!) accelerating women’s leadership.
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Issue 170 — June 28, 2021
My weekly zoom with women friends who have been staying in touch through the pandemic recently focused on how hard it is to get old ideas and solutions out of their heads when a new and better one has been proven more effective.
The examples mostly came from the world of science and medicine, starting with Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis who was hounded out of the medical profession in the 19th century. Dr. Semmelweis observed that simply washing hands after treating other patients could significantly reduce maternal mortality. Despite a growing body of scientific papers that backed up his theory, most physicians refused to change their traditional practices, and eventually had Semmelweis committed to an institution where he died.
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Issue 169 — June 6, 2021
As a girl, I loved tennis. I was never destined to be a Naomi Osaka, but I played regularly until I was 13 years old. Then my family moved to a small town where the only public tennis court was at the local high school. Soon after arriving in town, I went there with a girlfriend.
The court bordered on the street. A few minutes into our game, a carload of teenage boys parked in front of the court and shouted remarks about our physical appearance. We ignored the boys till they left, then packed up our racquets and went home. I never played tennis again.
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