First time I read this well-known Margaret Fuller quote, my reaction was probably the same as yours: “Duh! Of course you do, Maggy. You don’t have any choice!” But pretty much the same thought has come to me, lately.

First, some context: Transcendentalist, feminist, universally acclaimed to be brilliant, widely-read author and skilled editor, Margaret Fuller was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1810. (She died, at age 40, with her infant son, when their ship shipwrecked off the coast of Fire island, New York.) Which means, of course, that the Universe she accepted included both slavery, an American evil most (not all) transcendentalists vigorously condemned and fought, and sexism.  Northeast-based for much of her short, fully-lived life, the horrors of slavery may very well have been an abstraction for Margaret; not so regarding sexism. That form of oppression she knew first-hand. She was denied an education at Harvard, for example—although later in life she became the first woman allowed to use the prestigious college’s library. (To rectify the abominable education most women of that time received she later conducted “conversations” for/with other women.) In other words, Margaret Fuller’s Universe “ain’t no crystal stair.”*

Neither is mine. So when I say I accept a Universe of climate change denial and racism and Donald Trump and the Kardashian family and unending war and the Zika Virus, I am saying, “Yes. I am mindful of all of it. My acceptance means humility. And embracing complexity. ‘It is what it is.’ All of it. I accept that I am to ask: What am I called to do? And who do I can cheer on from the sidelines as they do what they’re called to do? And to embrace all of it; to let my acceptance be joyful.

And to be grateful as I keep climbing on.

* Langston Hughes’

Mother to Son 

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor —
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now —
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

[Granddaughters; The Dinner Party, Brooklyn Museum]

They’re hard to put into words, these beyond words, transcendent moments, aren’t they? And sometimes happen when least expected or convenient. I clearly remember being both  gobsmacked by Faure’s “Messe Base” on my car radio yet annoyed that I was on Mass. Ave. during rush hour. “I don’t want to be having this religious experience here and now,” I complained to the Universe, tears running down my cheeks. “I’m on my way to work. This isn’t a good time.” (Apparently the Universe had other plans.)

Yadda yadda yadda; back to Hillary. So there I was, a couple of days ago, in the “12 Items And Under” check-out line at the Market Basket. And in a hurry. And the young, check-out woman had apparently made a cash register mistake with the customer ahead of me so needed her (female, slightly older, also Spanish-speaking) supervisor to rectify the error—and, it annoyingly turned out, to receive some slow and patient on-the-job training as well.

Did I mention I was in a hurry? But before I could begin The Loud Sighing While Waiting Thing, I suddenly was gifted with: I am watching a young woman being coached by another woman so she can do her job better. So she can KEEP her job, maybe.

And suddenly I saw this scene both as a Yay, Sisterhood feminist and as if I were an impatient, self-important Anglo who just wanted to get the hell out of there. Yup. As a man. BUT this impatient man knew he now lived in the same, post-Hillary’s “I’m getting ready to . . . video reality. So he had to be patient. He had to remember that, sadly, the Market Basket is one of the very few “careers” available to many women. That one woman taking time to help another woman might very well have been about Survival. So he had to suck it up.

Yup. Hillary, someone savvy enough to have green-lighted that clever bit o’ branding video, is running for Prez. It is a brave new world. A world in which, maybe, it could be okay for one woman to coach another woman in public.

Maybe. (Conversion moments aren’t necessarily predictive.)