Dear Friends,
This has got to stop. I launched Stop Drop And Dance officially on January 1st of 2020 and every week I have written a blog post. And… as I look back at over 30 posts, LITERALLY every other week I have written about a MAJOR bummer in our world… just two weeks ago I wrote about the sudden loss of Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman, and this week, of course, I have to write about the early death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
NOOOOO.
This was the photo my sister texted my family on Friday and what my nieces wrote about Justice Ginsburg.
Isn’t it so interesting that Justice Ginsburg became such a popular icon in every generation, down to little kids, and was given the name “Notorious RBG” which is the complete opposite of her but is actually quite fitting? I find that absolutely fascinating. I find her absolutely fascinating.
R = Rebel With A Cause
Just like my nieces read the “Who is Ruth Bader Ginsburg” children’s biography, my girls also have read about her in the book, “Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls.” Rebel.
Justice Ginsburg became well-known because of her courage to stand out against the majority and say, “I dissent.” She knew when she had a captive audience and she knew she needed to be heard. So she spoke. And rebelled. And dissented. And even those who disagreed with her, admired her for that.
A rebel just does the opposite to be different and to gain attention. Justice Ginsburg was a rebel with a cause to uncover unconscious biases, to open people’s minds, and to ultimately change thinking.
Be a rebel with a cause and sign this petition honoring Justice Ginsburg’s last request, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/do-not-fill-ruth-bader-ginsburg-s-supreme-court-seat-until-after-the-2021-inauguration
B = Back to the Future
Ok, you know Marty. Well, yes, that’s Justice Ginsburg’s loving and supportive husband, coincidentally, but I’m talking about Marty McFly and Doc Brown. You know how you watched “Back to The Future” in the 80s and everything in there was so radical and unimaginable… using just your voice to activate the lights, or seeing someone’s face while talking to them on the phone. What??? But now look… those things became reality.
“Alexa, turn on the air conditioner.”
Justice Ginsburg had that radical vision. She saw the future and held on to her beliefs of what the constitution really means in the present day for all people. Equality, fairness, justice. And she had that vision for herself too. Become a lawyer. Be at the top of your class. Shatter expectations. Break the glass ceiling. Rise all the way up… to the Supreme Court.
Be like Marty and Justice Ginsburg and travel to the future. What vision do you see? What are you manifesting in your life right now? What steps can you take now to begin making that vision come true?
G = Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Above all, we know what Justice Ginsburg has done for women, especially. Girls just want to have fun means that if a girl wants to play sports, she should be able to. If she wants to go to a certain school, she should be able to. If she wants to be the president, she should be able to. Justice Ginsburg believed in allowing girls to be given a fair chance. To be treated the same. To have equal pay. To choose her own path. To be really heard.
There are so many powerful quotes from Justice Ginsburg that I wanted to share, but here are just a few:
“Feminism — I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‘Free To Be You and Me.’ Free to be, if you were a girl — doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Anything you want to be.”
“A gender line helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”
“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S.”
“It’s an unconscious bias. It’s the expectation. You have a lowered expectation when you hear a woman speaking, I think that still goes on. That instinctively when a man speaks, he will be listened to, where people will not expect the woman to say anything of value. But all of the women in my generation have had, time and again, that experience where you say something at a meeting, and nobody makes anything of it. And maybe half an hour later, a man makes the identical point, and people react to it and say, ‘Good idea.’ That, I think, is a problem that persists.”
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”
And on defending men to be treated equally too…
The courses she taught as a professor. The cases she won as an attorney. The influence she had as a justice. The change she made so we can now live in a world where women’s rights exists. The inspiration she has given to all of us and our daughters and granddaughters. All of it. Thank you, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
If you’re needing some RBG binging, check out her documentary RBG, or the movie, On the Basis of Sex. Or if you feel like reading, check out the Notorious RBG, My Own Words, or the children’s book I Dissent.
Wait, what?? YES.
Yesterday was National Dance Day and we celebrated on Zoom as usual. We raised $410 for the Marin Education Equity Fund (thank you donors!), but something was missing. With the depressing news of RBG on Friday night, then some extra glitchiness on Saturday, I realized I am NEEDING some in-person dancing. Desperately.
So… I went outside, took out the tape measurer, used my kids’ sidewalk chalk, swept away pine needles, tested out my technology, and made 12 rectangles on the deck, all at least 6-9 feet apart. It is possible!!! I’ll still be streaming on Zoom for those of you at home or with kids, but if you can join me physically in Terra Linda, please do. Sign up will be first-come first-serve through email: info@thepowerwithgrace.com (tell me which day) and it will be $20 for non-members and $10 for members if you are confirmed among the first 12 dancers.
It’s worth a try. To respect my neighbors’ I won’t have music blasting, but being altogether will make up for it. And fingers crossed the whole month of October can be a dance-outside month. Wouldn’t that be incredible?
Here’s to cheering up with a little bit of music and dancing,
Grace
