Girlfriends Are Lifesavers
Girlfriends Are Lifesavers
By Reeda Joseph
Published November 24, 2009 (Hardcover) Viva Editions
The luckiest thing happened tonight. It was my night to host the Dinner Grrls potluck and, for whatever reason, only most of my very best friends from the social networking group showed up. So a few minutes ago, when I read Girlfriends Are Lifesavers, the words took on intensified meaning.
The vintage pictures…not so much. But they were amusing.
Vintage artwork of four women doing some kind of water ballet with pre-Samsonite luggage balanced on their shoulders. Author Reeda Joseph writes: We can be ourselves with our closest friends…baggage and all.
Four of us women in my kitchen sat semi-circle around my grandmother’s century-old oak table whose glass-rings stained into it are older than any of us. In no way did we four around that table resemble the women in the picture. Dana is a PhD level educator. Lisa is a Naturopathic Physician. Laura, another physician, is an allergist. And, me, simply stated, a journalist.
Dana whipped up a spinach salad. The doctors brought wine. And I served up that cheesecake pie I baked last night.
The book is playful, but not necessarily true: We rely on our girlfriends for so many important things…like gossip, dirt, and rumors.
The conversation was full, and shifted, after spending adequate capital on each subject. Our quartet opened with the question of sexual harassment between people of power and their underlings. Then…the positive healing effect of EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) on rape victims in third-world countries where the women would otherwise be ostracized forever. The shambles politicians are making of health care reform. How sitting for more than two hours at a time can shorten your years. The ridiculous appearance of women who lift and tuck and enhance surgically. And each of these subjects stemmed from personal anecdotes, which we revealed and discussed, fearlessly and openly.
Yes, this is the story of girlfriends. It has changed since we grew up – women our mothers’ ages were depicted in Girlfriends Are Lifesavers. These girlfriends around my grandmother’s table not likely to be gossiping in the fresh produce aisles.
But some things haven’t changed. Despite the vintage picture of women in makeup with pillboxes on their heads seated at a diner, Reeda Joseph’s line is fine for every time: Everything gets better…when you can vent about it with your girlfriends.
Would love to email Reeda Joseph. In reading
ReplyDelete"Girlfriends Are Lifesavers" when I came to the page "Hmmmm, he didn't look so gay on Facebook!"
It struck me as odd and not keeping with the open-minded theme of the book and the author.
What is the message the author is trying to convey in this statement?
I am an open minded thinker as much as possible. I would not have bought a book with a disrespectful comment that could be taken this way by the GLBT community.
Thank you for your time and hope to receive a reply.
Terri Pourahmadi