Countries with Women as Heads of State Are Doing Better During the Pandemic

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” - Albert Camus

At check-in or in the main dialogue itself each of us could say how we’re doing (really and truly) and what we’re doing to keep our spirits up (how to find within ourselves an invincible summer).

Just for fun, here's a lively music video which might make you want to get up and dance. We could play this at check-in and only then say how our spirits are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E

A very recent piece in the New York Times notes that countries with a woman as the head of state seem to be doing better than other countries during the pandemic. It begins with reference to the success in New Zealand with Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/world/coronavirus-women-leaders.html

“A new leadership style offers promise for a new era of global threats”

and then gives other examples and some thoughts about the possible reasons and significance for the future.

For our short stories, going forward, we could also mention favorite short story authors who have influenced us. Top of my list at the moment would be James Joyce, whose short story collection Dubliners (published 1914) is a glimpse into the lives of a series of characters, each of them a “Dubliner,” and each seeming real in a way that (it could be said) transcends even my own direct personal experience on that day. To illustrate the point, I’ll refer to one of the stories, “Evelyn,” in which the main character is a young woman feeling a bit too much burden from her family responsibilities, especially with her father’s difficult behavior. She has met a young man who wants to marry her and take her with him to Buenos Aires. The father doesn’t like the young man, and the relationship has to become a more secret one. The father has no idea she is planning to leave for Argentina. As the time for departure approaches, Evelyn is sitting at her window and thinking about this painful decision. It is very hard for her to abandon the life she knows well, and yet that new life beckons like freedom. She writes a farewell letter to her father and to one of her brothers, takes her suitcase to the dock where she will meet her beloved. Here are the closing paragraphs of the story:

She stood among the swaying crowd in the station at the North Wall. He held her hand and she knew that he was speaking to her, saying something about the passage over and over again. The station was full of soldiers with brown baggages. Through the wide doors of the sheds she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boat, lying in beside the quay wall, with illumined portholes. She answered nothing. She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty. The boat blew a long mournful whistle into the mist. If she went, tomorrow she would be on the sea with Frank, steaming towards Buenos Aires. Their passage had been booked. Could she still draw back after all he had done for her? Her distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent prayer.

A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand:

- Come!

All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.

- Come!

No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!

- Eveline! Evvy!

He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. He set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.

Arthur