Four of my favorite words…

I am still learning!

…widely attributed to the incredible artist of the Italian Renaissance known as Michelangelo.

I don’t have enough glowing adjectives to describe his work as a painter, sculptor, poet.

Mostly, though, I think he was a teller of stories. Stories that mattered a great deal.

And an inspiration for me and for our time.

He lived in a world at war over who got to tell whom what to believe, which feels more and more familiar to me as this century rolls on.

And, no, it’s not new. It just feels – with all of our technology – bigger and closer and harder to ignore than it has to me, before.

Part of that is, of course, my girls.

I remember, when I was the same age Kenzie is now, learning a much more personal, enlivened perspective on the American Revolutionary War from a brave teacher who ventured from retirement-ville Florida, clear to Broadway, and came home with a play called 1776.

Was the play “true”?

Not in the accepted academic sense. No.

Did it leave me with a sense of the real people and the bigger issues involved in that pivotal part of my history? Yes.

It changed history, for me, from a list of dates and names one memorized and regurgitated for an exam if one wanted good grades – and I did – to a new human perspective on actual events, largely recorded by the rich and powerful men who won.

Along with some really fun music!

And, I, like Michaelangelo, am still learning.

One of the biggest things I’m learning is a sense of how much it mattered to those who came before me to choose what they believed. And a great many of them chose dangerously unpopular alternatives to the official stories of their times.

I used to think that we were beyond the time when somebody assumed they got to tell everybody else what to believe.

This does not, however, seem to be the case.

And, frankly, I have moments when I want to just give up. To hide in my house and make dots and only talk to people who think like I do.

But, I can’t. Because I have 2 granddaughters growing up in this world.

It’s pretty scary to realize that I have no idea what choices they’ll face in the next few years.

Here’s what I do know…

I want, with all my heart, for them to know that they get to choose.

What to read. What sports to play. Who to love. What to hold sacred. Who to vote for. (And one of them will be doing just that, sooner than I can wrap my head around!) How to care for their bodies.

And I will love them, still.

So, I will keep learning.

And voting. And writing. And painting. And choosing. And guiding.

If you relate, I hope you’ll hang around. There’s newness afoot! For this moment… two things.

I have room in my world for just a few more individual clients. Grand-Elder types who have more mattering they long to do and are ready for a supportive guide along the way.

If you’re noticing a hmmmmmmmm somewhere deep and real inside, let’s talk! The calendar elves will hook you up with 30 minutes, on me!

If, on the other hand, you’re ready to dip your toe in the pool of modeling lots of learning and choosing, Daphne and I have a suggestion for an addition to your Wonder-Grammy wardrobe! Really!!!

ps… there’s no rule against doing both!!!

pps… the newness afoot? That means sooner is better for putting the calendar elves to work!