Email Abbie!
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"I would like to open this site for conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. I can be wrong as often as right, so specific advice will be avoided. What will be sought is light on how best to frame the situation of women, considered as a highly interesting problematic. What kind of hand have we been dealt, as women, and how can we best play it?
Comments are warmly encouraged on any post at any point."
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Category Archives: Romantic Love
The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott
The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott “Coziness” is not a word in the highest repute. In the 17th century, when the philosophers called “modern” were allowing the new physics to define reality, the features they deemed objectively-out-there were measurable: like … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 17th Century Philosophers, Alcott as nurse, becoming a writer, catering to fashion, coming-of-age novels, cultural ideals of womanhood, death of Beth, farther shore., father-daughter relation, fatherly love, fictional simplifications, filial piety, Frederick Douglas, Greta Gerwig, guardian angels, happy endings, hard-edged modern views, hearth and home, Henry David Thoreau, home life, homelikeness, hope and faith, ideals of girlhood, important thinkers, Julia Ward Howe, literary catering, living one’s talent, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s death, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Margaret Fuller, Marmee, Materialism, maternal protection, measurable reality, modern feeling, motherly love, Nathaniel Hawthorne, objectivity, parental guidance, personal fulfillment, physical reality, plain living and high thinking, processing influences, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relativism, repressing anger, sentimentality, size, subjectivity, the primary qualities, the secondary qualities, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist family, unsentimentality, velocity, weight
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It’s Our Twentieth!
It’s Our Twentieth! January 20th, 2020, is our twentieth anniversary and, over the past few days, we’ve been talking about what it all means. In our first year, when I still lived in New York and Jerry in Washington D.C., … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a fish without a bicycle, a woman without a man, Abraham and Sarah, biblical flawed people, biblical models, Biblical narrative, biblical prototypes, biblical romance, Charlotte Bronte, collegial advisors, commuting marriage, consulting experts, delusions, girlhood daydreams, gnostic lovers, grave of Heloise and Abelard, Heloise and Abelard, identity markers, institutional role, Isaac and Rebecca, it’s a miracle, Jacob and Rachel, joint life, letting be, life together, love and work, love as knowledge, madness of love, medieval troubadours, mutual support, neutral vantage point, new beginnings, partnership, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Reader I married him, reciprocity, requirements of marriage, reshaping one’s life, risking identity, romantic feeling, sanity markers, shared space, shared time, social dignity, social status, story of God and humankind, taking a chance, teamwork, the bachelor life, the good fight, the rose clings ‘round the briar, Tristan and Iseult, view from nowhere, wedding anniversary, winning know how, with love all things are possible
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Lost Innocence and Tanya Tucker
Lost Innocence and Tanya Tucker Tanya Tucker hasn’t put out a country album in 17 years. While she’s been… wherever she’s been… country music has changed and now resembles rock ‘n roll. There’s a heavy, percussive roar behind virtually every … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Journalism, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 19th century German philosophers, 19th century Romanticism, a real woman, Appalachian music, Arthur Schopenhauer, CMT videos, country album, country gospel, country hits, country music, country music v rock ’n’ roll, country songwriters, cowboy heroes, feminine survival, Friedrich Nietzsche, goodness and badness, integrity and wickedness, ISIS rapist, ISIS survivor, Ken Burns’s Country Music, lasting lust, Leo Bronstein, loss of innocence, love v lust, loving one’s life, old time virtue and vice, philosopher of art, rape victims, sex and ideas, Sigmund Freud, storytelling songs, surviving lost innocence, Tanya Tucker, Tanya Tucker's While I'm Livin', the good of being bad, the singer’s gift, the youth market, trauma and art, truth-telling woman, victims condemnation, Willie Nelson, Willie Nelson’s The Last Man Standing, worldwide country music fans
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Time and Me
Time and Me When I was a little girl, I didn’t worry about Time at all. I pretended I was a deer and roved the forests. I pretended I was a boy raised by wolves and roamed the jungle. Back … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Existentialism, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, Identity, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Renaissance, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged actualization and time, adolescence, adolescent boys, believing the unbelievable, book illustration, childhood’s end, coming of age, coquetry, coquetry in Europe, filling time, Flirting, flirting in America, future, getting your work done, growing pains, growing up in America, here today gone tomorrow, hypothetical and actual, imaginary worlds, intentionality, John Tenniel, knowing what’s real, knowing who one is, learning one’s purpose, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, life lessons, life regrets, life vocation, life’s work, Michelangelo, nostalgia, one’s calling, past, present, realization and time, running out of time, sufficient unto the day, teenage angst, temporality, the coming of reason, the lens of time, the real and the imaginary, Time, time and purpose, time flies, time of childhood, time’s wingéd chariot, to last and get your work done, wallflower, women friends, young girls in bloom
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Womanly Arts
Womanly Arts At the Eric Voegelin Society conference we attended this week in D.C., Jerry and I were on a panel entitled “Life as a Spiritual Journey.” They went awfully well — both of our (totally different) presentations. For the … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", acculturated behavior, adaptive behavior, advising daughters, advising sons, Americans in Paris, arbitrary values, autonomic functions, conference panelists, contingency of values, cultural denial, economic substructure, Eric Voegelin Society, ethology, feminine reality, feminine virtues, feminist movement, Fullbright Grantees, gender acculturation, German Occupation of Paris, high-sounding words, life as a spiritual journey, Marxist remedies, masculine virtues, memoir, modeling manhood, modeling virtue, modeling womanhood, nature and nurture, painting in oils, parental guidance, Parisian impressions, personal bungling, pre-feminist, professed ideals, professional bungling, professional success, public feminist, selling the Brooklyn Bridge, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, speaker’s anxiety, strategic mistakes, subsurface fears, surface idealism, the absurd, the feminine art, the masculine art, traditional virtues, tragic circumstances, Washington D.C., womanization, womanly fulfillment, women friends, you can’t say it, young American women
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