Party like it's 2030
Today we celebrate women. So let's get this party started.
Today, as I'm writing this, it's International Women’s Day. Which I guess means that the other 364 days of the year are dedicated to men. But no matter. Today we celebrate.
Let’s raise a glass or tea cup or fist to women’s power. Consider these statistics:
Women hold $10 trillion – with a T – dollars in assets, and that number is expected to more than triple, to $34T by 2030, a mere 5 years from now.
Women control household spending in 85% of American homes.
Women 60 and above is a growing demographic. By 2050, our ranks will swell to 1.14 billion – with a B – globally.
Taken together, what future do I see in these tealeaves? It’s simple: As women, we hold enormous power and our power is growing. It may not feel that way right this minute, given the virulent and often violent pushback against these realities,
But the math don’t lie.
And one thing I love about math is that it pinpoints opportunity. A growing demographic of older women who hold economic clout can dictate terms. Women’s healthcare is massively underfunded, so that’s one opportunity. Innovative housing solutions, improving educational outcomes for everyone, combatting environmental collapse. Pick your concern, and as women armed with $34 trillion – with a T – we can do a world of good. Literally.
The good news is we don’t have to wait until 2030. In fact, we can’t. It's time, right now, to flex our power. And working together is the portal to change. So if you are feeling alone, anxious, and anything but powerful, try this simple magic trick. Reach out to your friends, your sisters, your nieces and neighbors. Talk. Vent. Laugh. Plot and plan. Then plug into organizations that represent your values. Or create your own.
Together we can change the world, and as Margaret Meade wisely observed, thoughtful, committed people like us are the only thing that ever has. We have the power, and it's time to use it.
Now that’s something to celebrate!
xo Jean Shields Fleming, Editor
Join us in the dance?
What can be taught, and what can only be discovered through the grit of lived experience? What did we lose to “the virus”, and what can never be taken from us? Marjorie Power’s poem YouTube Sent by My Beloved Tango Teacher, initiates us deeper than competition and spectacle to the raw pulse and sacred spaces of the tango. Where we dance for the sheer need of it. For the raw thrill of it. Toward the truth no imitation can teach us to reach.
Yours in the life poetic,
Sage Cohen, Poetry Editor
Hitchhiking in Israel
It's 1973. You live on a kibbutz near Galilee, and after a day at the beach in Tel Aviv, you decide to hitchhike home, alone. What could possibly go wrong? Find out, in this taut, harrowing and heartfelt memoir by Bobbi Lerman. Spoiler alert: It confirms our hope that kindness exists in the least likely places.