Sunday, March 8, 2009

Happy Women's Day

To all you wonderful women out there, Happy Women's Day!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you have probably never lived in Europe or the former Soviet sphere. In Russia and many other countries, March 8 is International Women's Day, a day to celebrate women for being women. It's not like Mother's Day, which is fundamentally about celebrating mothers (and which they have in Russia as well, but for some reason celebrate it in late November and it is much less significant than in North America). Women's Day is a day for all women, whether they are mothers or girls, married or single, young or old. It's a big day and no man in his right mind would forget it. Of course given that the other 364 days of the year in Russia and other places I've lived women carry the heaviest burden of labor and really keep society functioning, recognizing them for this on a single day is the very least that can be done. I bet many women there would be happy to give up women's day if in exchange they could have men who were more engaged in household activities.

So dear ladies, enjoy your day and please know that at least some of us men truly do appreciate you, not just for what you do but simply for who you are. You enrich our lives and our world. Some men might dream of a world without women. I for one think that such a world would be a pretty sad and uninteresting place to live. I'm glad I don't have to.

And to my beloved wife and precious daughter--I love and adore you both!

2 comments:

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  2. Love you too! I'd forgotten all about Women's Day until I saw Liza's comment about it.

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