Margit’s Note: Ms. Independence

By Margit Detweiler

Writing about independence is no easy task. I’ve written this little note to you three or four times, scrapping each edition and littering the page with words like “Liberty” “Freedom” and “Inalienable Rights.” It’s like Thomas Jefferson is all up in my grill. Come on Tom, back off.

I’m trying to explain to my readers about we women of a certain age and independence, that the word means something particular to us because we’ve cultivated it over the years — and we fight for it every damn day. We can’t take it for granted.

The point is, we need to light the sparklers and fist pump to Freedom — the freedom that a woman earns over the course of her life, that guides her decisions and allows her to forge and determine her own crazy, sexy path.

As we see this week on TueNight, our path might be on a boat, on a motorcycle, in a van or even in a wheelchair. Yeah, I found independence in a wheelchair for a day. Go figure. I learned that sometimes we depend on others — and even moving vehicles — to assert our independence.

We also consider how we pass along an independent spirit to our daughters and how we assert ourselves in the company of mansplainers. We honor the power of one and our ability to make a choice, any choice, to stand by that choice, to be free.

So with great admiration for both T. Jeff and Kelly Clarkson, allow us to present this week’s edition:

• Bernadette Murphy embraces the mid-life motorcycle
• Victoria Fine decides to live, permanently, on a boat
• Aliza Sherman learns to be brave from her 10-year-old daughter
• Laurie White speaks truth, loudly and regularly
• Ashlie Atkinson vacations in a van
• And I hit the United State of Women Summit — in a wheelchair

Independently yours,

Margit

(Photo credit: Stocksy.com)