RANDOM JOTTINGS


A blog about music, sports, theatre and rants





I seem to have touched a nerve with this Rant of mine as I have had loads of comments on the blog and off blog. Most of the comments I have received have agreed with me, but the ones on FB and twitter are not totally in synch with my thoughts and that is fine.

A couple of tweets took issue with me saying I was fed up with Inspirational Women and we all needed role models to look up to and I could not agree more. I have made it clear that this is a personal view and slightly tongue in cheek (though I meant every word), and yes, young girls Jazzand women need to know they can aspire to great things – if they want to. And I feel that so many of these articles can make you feel a bit despairing "Oh I can never do anything like that" and make you feel a bit useless. So I think there is a balance to be sought.

When writing I made the point that women do so much and all unsung. In their way they are inspirational, they do wonderful things but nobody gets to know about it.  And all the time in the back of my mind was the rememberance of something that I had read and loved and expressed my thoughts.  Woke up this morning and remembered it. So I took the book down from the shelves and here is what it said:

"But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea we know.

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth.  But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive; for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs"

The last page of Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Perfect.

Posted in

15 responses to “Yesterday’s Random Rant – Empowerment, mindfulness and all that Jazz – A follow up”

  1. Elaine Avatar

    A wonderful comment and sums everything up perfectly. I could not agree more and thank you so much for taking the time to post
    xx

  2. Theresa Born Avatar

    Loved your posts. I can’t help but think — if everything we do is noticed, if we are seeking attention and accolades and affirmation for our normal everday lives (because, let’s face it. Not everybody can climb Mt. Everest.), — wouldn’t something be lost?
    There seems to be a real need these days to have ‘somebody notice me’. Can’t help but wonder what our grandmas would think… I can just hear them now! (and I haven’t read the comments above yet so if I’m being repetitious I apologize).
    Maybe REAL heroism is simply just plugging away. Maybe it’s plain old-fashioned perseverance. Maybe it’s sometimes facing up to our daily responsibilities, even when we don’t feel like it. Maybe being a heroine means, we don’t win any medals or get a slot on a tv show or are written up in a news feature article, but we DO run out in the pouring rain to the grocery store so that our families will have a good meal. We get up at 2 a.m. to comfort that feverish toddler (or to clean up the bathroom after him!) We make that phone call to that tediously wordy elderly neighbor when all we want to do is lie back with a cuppa and a good book … and nobody ever knows… except for the adolescent somewhat-anxious daughter watching in the background who is trying to fit in at school (and who might find that having a purpose is more important than being in the in-crowd). Or, the six year old sibling that sees Mommy parceling out dinner to everyone else first (and who grows up to be a terrific parent). Because, really, who are we really hoping to impress? How can society ever turn around unless we are making a difference in our own homes?
    Thanks for the great post (and I wrote this fast so apologies if I’m a bit too wordy!)

  3. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    Well said! this is such middle-class stuff, isn’t it?

  4. Elaine Avatar

    Yes I do wonder how mothers survive as it does seem as if we lose our identity etc. I always remmeber being.at a coffee morning when my two were small, surrounded by Yummy Mummies all full of angst and suffering. One said to me Elaine don’t you worry about losing yourself and your identity to which my reply was No I am too busy worrying about paying the mortgage this month.
    That shut them up

  5. Elaine Avatar

    I cannot thing of anything Margaret but sure something will come iup. Gender fluidity seems to be in vogue heaven help us

  6. Margaret Powling Avatar

    Oh, Erika, you did make me laugh at the cave dwellers and their paleo diet, I hope they had a nice little brew to go with it!

  7. Margaret Powling Avatar

    I made a silly mistake, it was Man-o-pause in the Daily Telegraph, I read it incorrectly (I only read the headline, and gave up on it) about hormonal changes (if indeed they occur) in middle aged men. Yes, post-natal depression in men must be just around the corner again!

  8. Erika W. Avatar
    Erika W.

    I do always look for women’s magazines when I am stranded in doctors’ waiting rooms. It is the only way to vaguely keep up with them.
    It has been going on for quite a while now but according to their contributors babies and child rearing are tremendous chores, quite possibly wrecking the mothers’ health and psychology. I must have been remarkably thick-skinned. I enjoyed motherhood, including being widowed when my two were approaching their teens. Then came their stepfather–should have caused them heavy trauma, right? But not at all. We shook down nicely together and he is now a dearly loved grandfather.
    In the food line over here in the US it is “paleo” this and that. Very nonsensical, it seems our cave ancestors spent time sun-drying raisin grapes and enjoying olives, sun flower seeds and avocadoes, often in the same meal.What busy little bees their women must have been.

  9. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    Post-natal depression for men is due another airing, I believe….

  10. Margaret Powling Avatar

    It isn’t just magazines, Elaine … yesterday there was yet another menopause article in the Daily Telegraph. It’s as if menopause is something new, something recently discovered. I’m sick to death of hearing about it (and here am I mentioning it again, ha ha!) I wonder which will be the next big thing for magazines? We’ve had mindfuless, we’ve had veganism, menopause has been done to death … there must be something equally boring that will suddenly take off and be writing flavour of the month? Any ideas?

  11. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    Perfect.

  12. Elaine Avatar

    I will persevere with Gh as I have read it for so long but not sure how much longer to be honest. I have written you a nice long email

  13. Diana Birchall Avatar
    Diana Birchall

    Just caught up with your Rant and I don’t know when I have been so diverted. Great stuff, Elaine, all of it, including the hilarious, spot on comments!The only thing that surprises me is that you haven’t taken Good Housekeeping and thrown – oh wait, you said you DID throw it against the wall! Well done. I hope it killed something. I remember on my first visit to England (from my native NYC in 1968) the newspapers and magazines were a revelation. How intelligent and well written they were, compared to what was on offer in the city I had thought until then was the center of the universe. As things are now, though, I have not read a magazine in probably two decades, and have absolutely no plans to resume. I once again smile at how you and I always seem to see eye to eye – but I now perceive that many others feel the same!

  14. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar
    Elaine Simpson-Long

    It is isn’t it?

  15. EJ Avatar
    EJ

    perfect !

Leave a Reply

Discover more from RANDOM JOTTINGS

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading