I learned the following hymn from a Pete Seeger recording. (Pete Seeger pictured at the left.) I've always loved folk music and I found the words of this song somewhat uplifting. I am of Quaker ancestry myself, and a considerable component of the Quaker witness through history has been the commitment to peace and to social justice, the commitment to the gospel ideals of reconciling the world -- in the here and now, not in some far off heaven in the clouds. Pete Seeger is not a Quaker himself, but certainly in some sense is a 'fellow-traveller,' and shares many of the same values of social justice and making the world a better place. The jacket blurb indicated Seeger got the song from his friend Doris Plenn, of Quaker heritage. The song was an old Quaker hymn.

Tina Sloan (Soap Opera Actress, Guiding Light)
Women are wearing high heels to "flaunt it while we have it" and suffering the consequences later. In brute defiance of reality, we wear heels we can barely walk in and much like sitting in the sun bathed in oil to get a darker tan or smoking so as not to eat and get fat, we suffer the consequences. But somehow the consequences are too far out to care about. It is just such fun to look glamorous in high, high heels. 

Having been on a soap opera for 35 years I know what glamorous is supposed to look like. It is NOT black flats or slippers. It is heels. I think it is with grace we finally wear kitten heels when the high heels give us migraines or bad knees or our feet are in pain. But we yearn for heels, and I think it is not just the media or the fashion industry that gives us such yearning. 

I think it is in our DNA as women to want to be peacocks and strut our stuff. We strut in heels and the damage to our body is tremendous. Some of the divas of soapdom are wearing slippers for rehearsal, but those heels go on when the camera rolls. And, oh, they look dowdy in the slippers. In New York City, we all wear heels out at night but often I wander the streets of the city in daytime in my sneakers, carrying the shoes I will enter a restaurant in in my bag. 

I have just been asked to play a cougar on a show and my first thought was about my shoes. I realize this may be society setting a rule on how we are perceived as beautiful but it is there. Why now we are wearing insanely high boots and shoes to elevate us above the world below is perhaps because we don't want to be in that daytime world of reality. We want to be high above (at least 6 inches in some bizarre cases) because then we are with the stars (and moon and sun) or at least 6 inches closer. 

I still love my high heels, though no longer as insanely high, but I feel pretty in them, and I love seeing myself in the reflection of store windows as I parade past, and maybe that is as important as anything.

                                                                                               lady lindy says, If the shoe fits, wear it
Follow every rainbow
Til you find your dream