Unsung heroes

We are meeting this morning to talk about our theme year. Today's exercise explores the questions, "Who would you invite to a dinner party if you could choose anyone living or departed?", "What would you talk about?", and "What would you serve?".

Deciding on the guest list was harder than I would have thought it would be. I did this before about 15 years ago, and even though I still more or less like the list of dinner guests, I wanted to invite some new guests. It took a while figure out the right strategy. Finally, I started looking at articles of "women in history". Some of the lists were very Hollywood-biased, others not.

There were quite a few on the various lists that I had now heard of, so I chose five. Then I added Emily Dickinson because her genius was not discovered before her death. Also, I needed a poet in the group. So my guest list is:  

• Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005)
• Miriam Makeba (1932–2008)
• Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
• Junko Tabei (1939–2016)
• Mae Jemison (1956–)
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

I would like to invite them to have a picnic in the woods somewhere on the east coast of Canada on a warm autumn day. We would explore such questions as:

 
What was it like to live alone with a belief that you know is true and others feel is threatening?
What were you born with that others were not?
Describe your inner creative landscape?
Who or what was your greatest teacher?
 
Photo by Ahmad Omari and Mariah Hewines on Unsplash