Dear Ms. Kardashian: Even though you don’t know me, I feel compelled to write this letter to you, a letter in which, believe it or not, there’s both an apology and a thanks to you from me, a stranger. I’ll start with the apology. Up until a few days ago, I thought I was ignoring you. It’s hard to ignore a celebrity when she appears on one’s Twitter and Facebook feed, whose face is on every cover of every magazine at the supermarket checkout. But I thought I was doing a fine job of it. In fact, I prided myself for not clicking on celebrity gossip, nor commenting on it when I happened to be in the vicinity of someone who was talking or posting about it. Celebrities and celebrity gossip … [Read more...]
Being Brave is Not for Sissies
"Why don't the good cops speak out and ban together against the bad cops?" This was a question I saw posted on social media yesterday. I'm pretty sure I know the answer. It's the same as why good teachers don't speak out and ban together against bad teachers, why good doctors don't speak out and ban together against bad doctors, and why good priests don't speak out against the pedophiles among them: It's actual fear ̶ fear of being called a "rat" by your "tribe" of colleagues, fear of being ostracized or known as a "troublemaker," fear of someone at a higher level in your workplace hierarchy destroying your reputation and your livelihood. (How many of us are old enough to remember Frank … [Read more...]
Lessons Taught by Cardboard Boxes
It's funny how I'm sure I've learned a certain thing in life and then something (or someone) comes along to illustrate that I haven't learned it nearly as well as I'd thought. This one is on the subject of what's really important in life. So, I've been stressed lately because we made a giant move in thirty days. I had to pack up my entire house by myself. I barely had time to say good bye to friends and colleagues who I really care about. Arriving at our destination to a house my husband has owned since before we were married, I now have to clear out my husband's "bachelor stuff" which includes rusty, burned pots in the kitchen, piles of papers and magazines he’s hoarded since 1996, … [Read more...]
What does “The Good Wife” Teach Us About Female Entrepreneurs?
In Season One of "The Good Wife," Alicia Florrick, wife of disgraced politician, Peter Florrick, stands at the podium next to him in a pose we've seen far too often in real-life politics: that of the stoic and silent spouse as he apologizes for his misdeeds which include, in this particular case, sleeping with prostitutes in a sex scandal that is only outweighed in repulsiveness by his corruption trial. We watch as she battles with the fallout from his actions, both financial and personal, and those women who've dealt with a cheating spouse, or know another woman who has, empathize with her internal struggle to do what's right for her children and herself. In my case, there was also, I … [Read more...]
When Bad Becomes Good
If I hadn't have married the wrong man, I would never have foolishly given up my teaching career to move to Greece with said man. I would never then have been in a sudden desperate financial situation, which forced me to start my own business overseas. If I hadn't started a business overseas, wherein my poor grasp of the local language, customs and business practices were challenged daily,I'd never have learned that I could be a more-than-competent, creative and tenacious entrepreneur. If I hadn't learned that I was a competent, creative and tenacious entrepreneur, I wouldn't have developed the confidence I needed to do what I really wanted to do, which was to write a book and see … [Read more...]
What’s In a Name?
Shakespeare’s Juliet asked this question in self-reflection and came up with the right answer for her, despite the tragedy to which her conclusion ultimately led. My answer to the question, “What’s in a name?” is the opposite of Juliet’s: there is a lot of meaning in every one of the names of my characters in my upcoming work, Cooking for Ghosts and Lost Lovers. This is a story I had been thinking about ever since my first visit to the RMS Queen Mary in 2008. I’d been given the honor of being asked to work on First Lady Maria Shriver’s California Women’s Conference in Long Beach, California. All the rooms at the conference center were booked. I could only find a room on the ship, which … [Read more...]
Women’s PowerStrategy Conference 2015
The next Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference will be held in 2015. Speaker applications are not being taken at this time. Please continue to visit the conference website for updates and for photos and videos of our 2013 conference. For questions about speaker applications and all other inquiries please email womenspowerstrategy@gmail.com (Any queries here in the comments section will be deleted.) Thank you for your interest, Patricia V. Davis and The Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference Team Note: Questions about speaker applications … [Read more...]
Let’s Not Fight ─ It’s Christmas: Your Holiday Cheat Sheet for Making it Through the Family Gathering
You’re going to see your family for the holidays again this year. You don’t know why you’re doing it, because every year you feel as though you’ve visited a level of Hell Dante forgot to mention. Every year your therapist gets a call on December 26 for an emergency session in which you swear to him or her you’ll never spend another holiday with “those people” again. But for some reason, you’re still not ready to emancipate yourself from this torture and so, every year that promise goes right out the window along with your diet, your hard-earned independence and your meager self-esteem. But I’m here to help. I’m here to remind you that Christmas dinner is after all, just dinner and not … [Read more...]