Sine Qua Non

“Men! They are the enemies of our innocence and our peace – they drag us away from our parents’ love and our sisters’ friendship – they take us body and soul to themselves, and fasten our helpless lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel. And what does the best of them give us in return?” – The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, Marian’s speech.

"And when I was in the delivery room, waking up from the ether, I asked the nurse whether it was a boy or a girl. She said it was a girl - and I turned my head to the side and cried. And then I said, I hope she grows up to be a pretty little fool. That's about the best a girl can hope for these days, to be a pretty little fool."  – Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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It's a hot, clammy day in June and the sky is heavy with clouds that hang low on the horizon, ready to burst. I sit at my desk sipping tea while I try to gather my notes. The weight of procrastination is almost as suffocating as this damp heat that clings to the skin through the film of sweat it forces the body to produce just sitting there doing nothing.

I think about the human condition... when am I not thinking about it?! My condition, your condition, their condition... our condition. Men, women. Ah, women. Above are two quotes that resonate deeply with me, and I suspect they would resonate with a lot of women out there. In rather few words, these quotes manage to encapsulate so much of the female plight in general... no wasted word or expression - no excessive sorrow or self-pity, here: only sober observations of their time. Irony would have it that the people who created these female characters who spoke such enlightened words were men.

People often like to break

The gentle and fragile things

To see how far their strength

And hubris will stretch.

In their haste sadly they forget

That once damaged and ruined

The gentle little things they miss

Can seldom be mended again.