What in the dickens is going on?

"It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times."

When I was a little girl growing up in the 1960's, 

there were (mostly) only white men

newscasters,

lawyers,

politicians,

soldiers,

corporate bosses,

ministers,

and on and on,

you know, the ones who led the way, the warriors at the pinnacle of society.

By the time I got to law school in the 1980's,

we were 50% women.

Trailblazers blazed the way,

blew the doors open

with their fierce determination.

Amen and halleluiah!

Now, of course, there is a backlash,

like a sleeping, angry giant waking up.

It's understandable (sort of).

And it's very complicated, filled with strange bedfellows.

Anyways, I will try to be patient...remembering...it was the best...it was the worst...

things will balance out,

they always do.

Suffering is part of the package,

malheureusement.

May the suffering be as light as possible,

may we provide comfort,

may we build bridges of peace.

 

Postscript: My sister sent out the folowing email in Nov 2024 to cheer people up: 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens 1859
A Tale of Two Cities takes place in the years 1775-1792, leading up to and during the French Revolution.

When Dickens wrote it, African-Americans were still enslaved, women didn’t have the right to vote, and most of Africa and West Asia aka Middle East were under colonial rule.