Why I went to work on International Women’s Day

(Apparently this is a once-a-year kind of blog?)

I went to work today because I am blessed to be a woman with a full time job. I am blessed to work for an organization that values me as an employee and as a human being. And, in my heart of hearts, I don’t need to prove to anyone that I am necessary, important, valuable.

As a reminder, if you are reading this, you are necessary, important, and valuable.

So I didn’t stay home from work today and I didn’t “strike” from my workplace. And honestly, it felt kind of Donald Trump-y to sit today out. Yes, he is kind of the worst and he has said some terrible things about women. Full stop, there is no “buts”.

And I have things to do today and people to love and ways to grow and I’m not going to sit that out just because my president is a real jack wagon.

We need today to be about truth and love. Is it true that women around the world struggle to have their full dignity recognized? Yes. Are there ways that we can strive to live that out better? Yes!

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each of us?” –Dorothy Day

Do we do that by not going to work/school? I don’t believe so. I firmly believe that we can change the world by loving the individuals in our lives, by reaching across the aisle (cliche alert) and desiring a deeper understanding of what it means to be a woman.

“The sense of futility is one of the greatest evils of the day…People say, ‘What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.” — Dorothy Day

Also, no one gets to decide what your level of dignity is, that is inherent. No one can take that away from you. So do I hope that our President and the leaders of the world will take concrete steps to recognize that dignity? Yes, and I will continue to fight for that.

But even if they don’t, my dignity as a women remains. I don’t need politicians, the culture, the media, etc., to affirm me in that way.

“What we would like to do is change the world–make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute–the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words–we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.” –Dorothy Day