Today is International Women’s Day.  We hope you’ll take a moment to consider the role that women play in society and the vast injustices that are still carried out against half the planet’s population.  We’ve posted here some sites you may find of interest …

To read about the history of International Women’s Day, we suggest you visit this site:  http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp    Note: due to high traffic on this particular site, it may take a while to open ….        

For a great article on women’s entrepreneurship, read this piece:   Unleashing Women’s Economic Potential

For an interesting editorial in the U.K.’s Telegraph today, CLICK HERE.

To mark International Women’s Day, UNESCO and the UIS have jointly released the World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, which includes over 120 maps, charts and tables featuring a wide range of sex-disaggregated indicators.  The vivid presentation of information and analysis calls attention to persistent gender disparities and the need for greater focus on girls’ education as a human right.  The atlas illustrates the educational pathways of girls and boys and the changes in gender disparities over time. It hones in on the gender impact of critical factors such as national wealth, geographic location, investment in education, and fields of study.

The United Nations’ web site section on the Global Issues on Women is:  HERE

I just want to thank you all for your kind birthday wishes today!  (I’m marking another anniversary of my 29th birthday today.)

It’s kind of an “different” birthday for me.  

My Mom died a year ago yesterday, so last year’s birthday and Christmas were nothing to celebrate.  In fact the whole month of December was pretty awful as we could not get her “placed” until December 22.  (There was, and probably still is, a back-up of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery because of the warfronts.)  The rest of the year was “strange” as well because I had been looking after Mom for several years, and had so many helpers and caregivers around, that I had forgotten how to live by myself. And I have really, really, missed my Mom …

I’m starting to remember how, now.

Of course it helps that I have a good roommate that I like, even if she works different hours from me, so we don’t see each other much.  And, I have some good friends and caring family.

Yesterday, my brother Bill and I paid a visit to Arlington.

It was ok.  It was sad.  But it was ok.  The day was overcast and chilly. But, as I remarked to my cousin Diane, our parents are still there…and they are  not going anywhere. (Strange the way we think of death sometimes.) They have a great view of the Pentagon.  Which they like, I’m sure.  It must be interesting to watch the goings-on in possibly the world’s busiest building.

Oddly, after yesterday, I feel like I can go forward now.  Today – my birthday – is the first day of the rest of my life.  

I don’t have my whole life ahead of me, but I hope I have a fair amount of time.  There’s a lot I want to do.

We’re always being advised these days to slow down, relax and don’t get too stressed out.  The advice on not getting too stressed out is good, because too much stress can blow a fuse in your plans … but I don’t necessarily want to slow down.  Life is short (Eat desert first) and I don’t want to look back on past birthdays ten years from now and wish I had made more effort on certain things.

Like keeping in touch with people and thanking them for thinking of me …

Thanks again for your happy birthday wishes!

His sister said his last words were, "Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Oh Wow!"

What would make Steve Jobs say this as he was dying?  What did he see?  Makes you wonder …   hope it was good.    :-D

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/10/sister-recounts-final-moments-of-steve-jobs/1

But maybe we don’t need to know … hmmmm ….

Is there a heaven?  We Christians like to think so.  It seems Steve Jobs was a pretty good guy – aside from being a brilliant intelligent product engineer and marketer.  I hope he made it there and I like to think that’s what he saw and made him say “Oh Wow!” as his last words.

He needn’t go to Heaven and come up with an app for the dearly departed to reach us here on earth however!

 I think there is a reason we are not allowed to “see” up into heaven until its our time to go.  Maybe its so we will focus on the short time we have here on Earth first. Everyone has a purpose here on Earth and certainly lots to do.  We couldn’t maximize our time HERE, if we were all looking forward to going THERE.

We should make sure our time here on Earth counts for something.  That we did something.  Left the planet a better place than when we arrived …like this guy here – Steve Jobs.

Ah, the wonder of it all. The mystery.

Heaven – definitely an important subject for a renaissance of all things romantic …

D