Re: Old challenges in a new era (The N in NEWS, Nov. 2)
What a delight to see Gwen Cash’s name mentioned within the first sentence of her essay on the same-old, same-old challenges women face, regardless of time.
Exactly 40 years ago, the fabulous Gwen wrote a column called “Accent on Life,” for the Victorian, a long-defunct local paper, featuring myself, then 12, and another girl, Andree, aged 13, who were to see Twelfth Night, at the Haida, another defunct cultural medium.
Then, in 1972, Gwen wrote of my blatant ignorance of Shakespeare, and the subtleties of politics, instead focusing on how much Andree and I enjoyed the “rustic humour, the pageantry, the gorgeous clothes, the characters.”
This ties in beautifully with Ms. North’s next wonderful mention of Dr. Lynne Van Luven, my favourite mentor, who guided me through creative non-fiction and its particular limitations as we struggle with memory and recall events we are certain to have occurred in exactly the way we want them or need to be in our lives.
I, too, experienced personally, the terrible behaviour of men in positions of power. I have suffered the consequences until my middle years, when I became a mother and realized that if I am to be a role model for my child, I have to stand up, face the demons and remind them that we are humans, first, flaws and all.
We need more of the Gwen Cashs and Lynne Van Luvens in every generation.
Ann Auld
Victoria