My alumnae quarterly has a small feature called “Alumnae Abstract” that notes recent research by grads. Nicole Gilbert ‘99 looked into Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and constructing gender. She found that “[t]he two holidays are events in which ‘society’s normative conceptions of masculinity and femininity’ play out in the family home, even among families that might disagree with those conceptions.” She also learned that “Mother’s Day celebrations last two hours longer than Father’s Day celebrations, yet mothers tend to be less satisfied with their special day.”

Also in the mail from Mount Holyoke, something with a feature called “Faculty Voices” with a piece from Penny Gill, Mary Lyon Professor of the Humanities and professor of politics, on identity. She writes, “. . . MHC is probably so ‘old fashioned’ as to once again be ‘avant-garde’ about the politics of identity in the postmodern culture wars.” Gill notes that at MHC, the curriculum and cocurricular activities offer opportunities to explore and understand identities. Gill concludes, “[t]here is a marked tolerance, even appreciation, when we’re at our best, for a certain kind of conceptual and political ‘messiness.’ (I thank Lee Bowie for having celebrated messiness in his baccalaureate talk in May 2003. . . .) We teach our students explicitly and by example to avoid reductionist and over-simplifying language, to pursue complexity and to try to articulate it with respect. The meaning is often to be found in the details – a gesture, a breakaway case, a stubborn piece of data, even an unexpected silence. . . . So, I appreciate Mount Holyoke for its encouragement to me, and to all the rest of us, to become who we truly are, in all our complexity and multigiftedness and sheer stubbornness of character and possibility.” Yup, I feel stubborn of character and messily complex.

Capitol City weather: clear and not quite 70.