To the Editor:

I just want to say that I think that women are great!   I believe I am a feminist, and a male too.

Just tonight, I was saying goodbye to my wife; she was getting picked up for a book-club meeting — a book  club of women that has been going on for about the last 12 years. (I’d have to check for the actual number, but she would know exactly, as the starter and list keeper of all the titles and authors they have read. )

But tonight was a little different; there was going to be extra. There was going to be their own “smudging” ceremony for a member who is recovering from cancer: another strong woman.  These women were going to outwardly express their deep feelings for another member.  (Men, can we do that?)

And then it reminded me that this has been going on for a while.  A lot of these women are in a walking group that meets relatively informally, but often, for morning walks together. And I don’t even know the number of years this has been going on.   And it’s long walks — two, three miles-plus, a tad more when you count in the steps to the local  bagel/coffee shop where they sometimes gather after the walk.

A good number of these women were also in a “mothers’ group” that  got together at least monthly, years ago, when my 30-year-old kids  were in preschool, or early elementary grades.  And it went on for quite a while. They shared parenting concerns, advice, kids’ clothes, and friendship.   ( There were times when I saw some of my girls’ clothes go the rounds,  so much so, that I saw a second daughter receive something from another girl’s mom, which had come from my first daughter, and maybe my first daughter wore it as a hand-me-down from someone else’s older daughter!)

I congratulate and am amazed at them. (And yes, I’ve been invited — and gone to at least one of the three different group meetings I’ve mentioned.) Still, I marvel, applaud, and feel proud that they get together and continue on.

There still is a tribe of women who continue to support one another here in our small community.   There are more and other kinds of women’s groups I’m sure, out there in our greater community, the nation, and the world.   Women, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, nieces, and grandmothers too!        Women the world around, supporting each other, their families, and the community at large. Thanks be!

Robert Bernardi

Altamont