Читать книгу It's a Chick Thing - Ame Mahler Beanland - Страница 9

foreword

Every word in this book is true, I only say that for the men who read it—every woman who reads it will know its truth instinctively. We could swear it was all made up and women would know better.

What we as Sweet Potato Queens (of whom I am the main most boss) have discovered—and what you are going to experience between the covers of this book—is the power of play, the magical, healing, and restorative powers of play. We never outgrow our need for it. I don't believe that we quit playing because we got too old. Rather, I believe that we get old, and seem older still, because we quit playing. The good news is, it's never too late.

I bear witness to this phenomenon every St. Patrick's Day, when legions of women from across the country converge upon my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, for that sole purpose—just to play. The lot of them—and lord, there are a lot of them—take time off work, buy plane tickets, make hotel reservations, construct costumes, and come all the way to Jackson, Mississippi, to play. They dress up as the Queen of Whatever They Choose and they march in the St. Patrick's Day parade—and every single one of them say it is the most fun they have ever had in their lives and they do not think they can live until next year, when they can do it…again.

The stories in this book may appear to be merely fun and frolic—as if that wouldn't be enough—but there's truly a higher purpose to it all. It represents the women's movement come full circle. We've fought and struggled for attention and equality, and in our efforts to be taken seriously we've taken ourselves too seriously at times. And although there is still much work to be done to level the playing field, we are finally able to revel in our femininity and celebrate our connections with other women. We are able to risk and play and just be ourselves. That's a glorious thing.

A man said to a group of us women one day that listening to us made him long for what he did not believe in: that another person could really understand what one is about. It got very quiet and we looked at him in utter disbelief and sympathy bordering on outright pity. “Bless your heart,” someone surely said to him, with a loving pat.

Our understanding of each other seems to be complete in utero-we just have the rest of our lives to enjoy it. Its a Chick Thing—thank God!

—JILL CONNER BROWNE, THE Sweet Potato Queen and

author of The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love

“God, I love a tiara.”

—Jill Conner Browne