The Beauty of Zoom

​You all know I am the first to admit that I am weak in my competency with anything technical, basically a computer. I am old. I didn’t not learn this stuff when I was a kid and I only started working with computers while I was in education. If is messed something up I called the computer lab and a ninth grader was sent to my office to fix everything.

I don’t have a ninth grader available anymore. The local high school frowns on me bringing in my lab top or desk top into the school and whining for a teenager.

BUT…I have found Zoom. Now I can’t set a zoom meeting up, but I can attend one. I have a lap top that allows me to see, hear, and speak in a Zoom meeting. What a joy.

I am on the Board of Directors of four groups. Yes, I am proficient in stupidity and the inability to say no. You can be proud of me, I got off the fifth Board of Directors!!! I am proud of myself on that one.

Today I had a BOD meeting with seven women who are part of the National League of American Pen Women. Look it up if you can. Founded in 1897, it is the oldest professional organization for creative women in America. It was started because men in the newspaper and publishing fields thought women were inept. You need to see the history of this institution. It will make you proud of your history and the growth that women have gained in more than 128 years. Yes, we still need to educate men, but “you’ve come a long way, Baby.” (Please tell me you remember that line.)

But I digress, which is something I do very well. This morning the seven of us met on Zoom and had a full board meeting with elections for upcoming awards for women in the creative fields.

There we were. Seven women of varying ages. And none of us in make-up. Not a mascara wand in sight. We appeared to be clean and dressed—at least from the waist up.

It was really delightful to talk about our “in the rough and ready” stage. Without all the goo we still recognized each other. We complimented each other on how well and fresh we looked. And you know what, none of us cared that we were bare-faced. Without the cosmetics we could still take on the world. In our minds, we would win, too.

We are a fearsome lot. All of us in a creative field. I was once a visual artist, focused on print making, drawing, and sculpture. I have moved into writing in the more recent years. Other members are in the visual arts range, but we have also musicians and dancers, actors, poets, some writers, singers, you name it. We’ve got at least one in every category. 

There are many Pen Women organizations across the USA. If you are interested, check out your state through the web site. If there isn’t one in your area, contact the national office and perhaps we can help you get one started. With the creation of Zoom we can now have Members-at- Large who cannot attend an in person meeting, but can be there in through the amazement of technology.

With or without makeup.
 
Just a little information:
National League of American Pen Women, Inc.

Pen Women are professional writers, journalists, painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, choreographers, art teachers, theater and film directors — and many others from all creative fields. We have more than 1,600 members across the United States, both at large and in more than 80 branches.
 
One of the earliest members of the organization was sculptress Vinnie Ream

In an era when women artists were not considered important, she, nevertheless, won the Congressional commission in 1866 at age 18 to carve the marble statue of Abraham Lincoln that stands in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. She made a bust of Lincoln, working with him in the White House before his assassination, and used it as the basis for the statue after his death.

The first meeting of The League of American Pen Women was organized by Marian Longfellow O’Donoghue (yes, Henry’s niece), who wrote for newspapers in Washington, D.C. She invited fellow journalists Margaret Sullivan Burke and Anna Sanborn Hamilton to join her in establishing a “progressive press union” for the female writers of Washington.
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Other famous women who have been members of the organization include Grandma Moses, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pearl S. Buck, Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, Rosalyn Carter, and Hillary Clinton, to name a few.

Having said the above, I am more than happy to be part of this remarkable women’s group, as I consider myself part of the “bridge generation,” bridging good old-fashioned in-person writing and meetings with today’s Zoom technology that makes all of us ladies look beautiful in our natural beauty!