Up, Always Up!

Gilded Bronze Statue by French Sculptor, Emmanuel Fremiet
Created in Paris, 1874; erected in Philadelphia, 1890

Many Halloweens ago, a dear friend sent me the following passage, and every year around this time (All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls) I like to get it out and pass it around. Not to accidentally set off some endless discourse on virginity or angels or witchcraft (!) but in celebration of creativity and daring and emancipation:

". . . in the early days of what we called then the 'emancipation of woman' . . . Many strange things took place . . . the young women of the highest intelligence, and the most daring and ingenious of them, coming out of the chiaroscuro of a thousand years, blinking at the sun and wild with desire to try their wings.

"I believe that some of them put on the armor and the halo of St. Joan of Arc, who was herself an emancipated virgin, and became like white - hot angels. But most women, when they feel free to experiment with life, will go straight to the witches' Sabbath. I myself respect them for it, and do not think that I could ever really love a woman who had not, at some time or other, been up on a broomstick."

from "The Old Chevalier"
a short story found in Seven Gothic Tales
by Danish author Isak Dinesen (1885 - 1962)

Thanks goodness / goddess for our broomsticks! I know I'm always up on mine. Thanks for loving me just the same. xoxo