As the inaugural unfolded last week I was glued to my TV and radio for the events along with much of the nation. I watched, among the speeches as well as the pomp and circumstance, as beautifully clothed women took their seats at the ceremonies. As reported in the paper they were all attired in designer outfits as they certainly needed to be. These were women in powerful positions past and present, and it was necessary for them to present themselves accordingly. From entertainers to poets to elected officials they were as bright as tropical birds in purple, yellow, red, and blue However, it is not these ladies to whom I aspire, but to another woman sitting in the stands in a black ‘puffer’ jacket with a warm navy blanket over her lap. In my next life I want to be Janet Yellen, sporting a nondesigner coat, her short grey hair in a bob and, oh by the way, past chairman of the Federal Reserve and our new Secretary of the Treasury.
In the end it was not what they wore that distinguished the women of the inaugural but what they had and will accomplish. There is no hope I will ever appear anywhere in a designer outfit, read my poems to the country, or be elected to national office, but I do own a warm winter coat, a white bob that blows in the wind, and a wool blanket. And who knows where that might take me, even at my age.