To celebrate Women’s History Month, my 7-year-old daughter Laurel and I are reading and discussing one outstanding woman each week. These are women who are, literally or figuratively, pioneers, who made an impact on history by their actions, words, and lives. So many phenomenal women to study!
The first choice was obvious: Laura Ingalls Wilder. As a young girl myself I read her “Little House” series repeatedly, until I knew nearly every story by heart. My daughter is reading the books now, and together with her little brother Rob loves to act out the scenes on our own family farm.
Next we moved on to Rachel Carson, discussing how someone can be an effective scientist and communicator at the same time. We talked about the courage it took for Carson to enter a field with very few women, and beyond that, to speak up for what she knew to be true, even if it caused national debate and personal ridicule.
We compared Carson to my daughter’s more modern-day heroes, Sally Ride and our friend Lt. Col. Jackie Parker (first female F-16 pilot, USAF). How they had to break new ground to do what they love – flying higher, farther, faster, than any women had ever gone before. And yet they did it, putting in long hours of hard work and study, and just taking one small step …for human kind … at a time.
We haven’t chosen a woman to learn about this week. Perhaps it will be a poet like Maya Angelou, a dancer like Martha Graham, or an athlete like Manon Rheaume (who? first woman to play on a men’s pro hockey team).
Perhaps I will tell her more of the phenomenal women have inspired me throughout my life. Women like Kathleen Namphy, my freshman literature professor at Stanford. It is for Professor Namphy that I wear the yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet on my left wrist, and have since her untimely death about four years ago.
No, she did not die of cancer. She beat it – twice. She died, at age 69, of injuries sustained in a fall during a trek up Iran’s Mount Damavand, an 18,600-foot peak. An experienced trekker, she was in Iran awaiting clearance to return to Iraq, where she had been overseeing humanitarian programs for some months. Her intention was to open a school for girls displaced by the current conflicts in Baghdad.
Kathy Namphy epitomizes the Phenomenal Woman: scholar, champion athlete, human rights advocate, mentor, educator, mother, friend. I hope I am climbing mountains at age 69. I hope, as long as I wear this bracelet in her memory, to LIVE STRONG, to live with passion, courage, conviction. I hope to always stand up and speak up for myself, and for those who cannot do so for themselves. I hope to surround myself with beauty in pictures, actions, and words, and to teach my children to do the same.
That is the legacy of women who climb mountains.
Hi! You’ve just chosen to follow my twitter (I just don’t know what i’m doing there but trying hard!)
And I read your blog about women climbing mountains….and you are exactly what I “needed” to hear tonight. Thank you.
I have a daughter, and somehow it is very difficult to transfer our knowledge, good or bad, to our daughters….or sons….somehow we all have to touch the hot stove to KNOW it’s hot!
Anyway, again I thank you for sharing.
“Somehow we all have to touch the hot stove to KNOW it’s hot!” Nellie that is one of the most profound statements I have ever heard. All parenting is experimental and experiential. We have to trust our instincts, but also trust that our daughters and sons are strong enough, smart enough, resilient enough to trek through their own journeys.
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