WOMONSCAPE CENTER, INC.

DECEMBER 2023

WOMONSCAPE TIMES
~A monthly publication by the Womonscape Center Inc.~

W O M O N S C A P E C E N T E R
Table of Contents NO-RULES BOOK GROUP (NRBG) D
The winter holiday season is a great time to enjoy a good
NRBG Reviews 1-4 book, and the No Rules Book Group is happy to offer some
suggestions! Here are some books and other media
E
Have You Heard? 5-8 selections from our November meeting.

Next Meeting Date 1, 10 We’ll meet again on Thursday, December 21 at 10:30am at

C
the Richland County Courthouse. Look for us in
Puzzle 9 Conference Room #1 on the lower level. Come with a book
or other media favorite to share, or just come and join us
E
Quotes 10 for some always-fascinating conversation.
M
NOVEMBER BOOK SELECTIONS
CHINESE MENU B
by Grace Lin
Grace Lin is an acclaimed children’s author and illustrator. A second-
generation Chinese American, she was inspired to complete this
E
particular book during the height of the Covid pandemic, when Anti-
Asian rhetoric was particularly disturbing. In it, she takes each of the
items typically found on an American Chinese restaurant menu and
R
describes the history and legends associated with them, from
chopsticks and Jasmine Tea to Moo Shu Pork and General Tso’s
Chicken. Lin’s illustrations are beautiful, and her delight in
storytelling is obvious. This book will find fans among all ages.
2
NONE OF THIS IS TRUE
by Lisa Jewell 0
Jewell’s latest novel focuses on the relationship between a
set of “birthday twins,” Alix Summers and Josie Fair. Both
women were born on the same day in the same year at the 2
same British hospital. Both have just turned 45, are
married, and have two children. But while Alix is a
successful podcaster and minor celebrity, Josie is a part- 3
time seamstress who is clearly dissatisfied with her life.
After discovering their birthday twin status unexpectedly,
Josie convinces Alix to interview her for the podcast, and
Alix’s life gradually starts to unravel. Who is this Josie?
What is her motivation? Is she dangerous? And how much
of what she says is true? This is a thriller that keeps the
reader asking questions until the very end. This book’s
reviewers listened to the story on CD, which added to the
suspense by including a cast of several different readers.

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NO-RULES BOOK GROUP

(Continued from page 1)

THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

by Laura Dave
Hannah Hall has been happily married to Owen and co-parenting
his 16-year-old daughter Bailey for the last two years. One day
Owen fails to come home from work; instead, Hannah receives a
paper message from him that reads,“Protect her.” Hannah is
certain that the “her” referred to in the message is Bailey, as Owen
has always been a devoted father. But what or who should Bailey
be protected from? And where is Owen, anyway? In searching for
the answers to these questions and more, Hannah uncovers her
husband’s secret past and has to decide how to handle her own
(and Bailey’s) less certain future. This 2021 novel was made into a
2023 miniseries currently streaming on Apple TV, starring Jennifer
Garner.
PIED PIPER
by Neil Shute (Norway)

Nevil Shute (also known as Nevil Shute Norway) was a famous British
novelist in the 1940s and 1950s. Several of his books were adapted as films,
including On the Beach and A Town Called Alice. In Pied Piper, Shute tells
the story of John Howard, a 70-year-old British man who is grieving the
loss of his son during one of the early battles of World War II. So, in the
summer of 1940, Howard decides to take a fishing trip to France in order to
distract himself. Unfortunately, his trip coincides with the German
invasion, and he needs to go home early. He even agrees to take two
English children with him. But a trip that should have only taken 24 hours
gets increasingly difficult as the war closes in around him. And the number
of children he is asked to escort eventually grows to six. This is a beautiful,
timely story of the emotional and physical challenges of war for some of the
most vulnerable members of society. The fact that it was first published in
1942, during the middle of World War II, makes it even more poignant.

ABSOLUTION
by Alice McDermott

The most recent novel by award-winning novelist McDermott is

centered around events during the Vietnam War. In 1963 Saigon,
Tricia is a young American wife of an American engineer working for
U.S. Navy Intelligence. She meets Charlene, another American
military spouse, who draws the younger woman into her circle of
friends and activities. Charlene’s goal is to pursue “inconsequential
good” by working in hospitals, orphanages, and leper colonies. But are
these actions really without consequence? Sixty years later, in present
day Washington, DC, Charlene’s daughter and Tricia compare notes
on what they remember and how their experiences in Vietnam shaped
the rest of their lives.
(Continued on page 3)

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Womonscape. Serving Women. Enriching Lives.

NO-RULES BOOK GROUP (Continued from page 2)

ELON MUSK
by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk is certainly one of the most powerful and controversial business
leaders of our time. HIs most recent biography, approved by Musk, is an
intimidating 688 pages in length. Our brave reviewer has not yet completed
the entire book, but wanted to give us her thoughts so far. The first part of the
book focuses on Musk’s difficult relationship with his abusive father, Errol
Musk. Although Musk and his brother are both estranged from their father, it
appears that PTSD from his childhood shaped the lens through which Musk
sees the world, and has given him a kind of aversion to contentment. One of
Musk’s ex-wives describes it this way: “I just don’t think he knows how to
savor success and smell the flowers.” Stay tuned for more updates: our
reviewer is determined to stick with it until the end!

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
by Aparna Nancherla
In her new memoir, stand-up comic, writer, and actor Nancherla describes her life struggles
with imposter syndrome. She deftly examines her conflicted image of herself as a successful
second generation Indian American with the advantages of an
education and a straight, cis-gendered identity, while also
acknowledging the the challenges she faces being female, brown-
skinned, and chronically depressed. Her writing is honest and
comically self-deprecating Here is an excerpt.

“My childhood crushes include Macaulay Culkin (but specifically

as Kevin in Home Alone), the Greek god Hermes (you had me at
winged sandals), and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Raphael
(“cool but rude”). Even now, I consider reality a major flaw
when it comes to men. My wheelhouse is the gray area between
attraction and projection. Deep down, some part of me wants to
be them, and short of that, settles for the consolation prize of
being with them.

My fixation comes from a place of coveting their access, their

irreverence, and their power. It’s funny to think of Kevin in
Home Alone as powerful, but then again, he is David, and his Goliath is two fully grown male
criminals. After all, who can do less wrong than a young, cheekily rebellious cis-het, upper-
middle-class Caucasian boy? His every wayward move is dismissed with an irrepressible
grin and shake of the head. The world is his oyster to shuck and discard as he sees fit.”

Ms. Nancherla can also be seen on YouTube performing stand-up comedy.

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NO-RULES BOOK GROUP (Continued from page 2)

FILM REVIEW
NYAD (streaming on Netflix)
Diana Nyad has been in love with swimming since girlhood, spending hours and hours of
her life in swimming pools in her native Florida, and competing in races with her peers.
But she is probably best known for her attempts to swim long, arduous distances in the
ocean. She gained national attention at age 25 when she swam
around Manhattan in record time. At various times in her life
Nyad has also worked as a journalist, a motivational speaker, and
an author.

At 28, she attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida, a distance of

about 100 miles. She wanted to be the first person to do so
without the protection of a shark cage. But exhaustion and bad
weather conditions took their toll, and she was forced to quit
after swimming for 42 hours and covering only 76 miles. It
looked as if she had given up on this goal completely.

Fast forward to 2010: Diana was now 60, and decided this
particular ocean challenge was calling to her again. With a rare
combination of determination and stubbornness, she trained and
studied and trained some more. She assembled a crew of friends
and experts to serve as coaches, navigators, and medical staff
both before and during her trip.

Still, it took her several more attempts before she was finally able to achieve her swimming
goal in 2013, at the age of 64. This part of the story is well-known to those who follow
swimming and to those who followed the talk-show hosts of the era, when Diana reported
on her adventures to every host from Oprah to Ellen.

But what was the story behind the story? Who were the people that supported Diana along
the way, and what was it like to work with someone so driven to do the “impossible”? The
true impact and importance of the people in Diana’s background are revealed in the new
film version of her swimming life, Nyad. Starring Annette Bening as Diana and Jodie
Foster as her best friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll, the film takes a look at the many layers of
behind-the-scenes drama in Diana’s life.

To be honest, this reviewer thought it might be pretty dull to watch someone swimming for
two hours on screen—as a young girl, a young woman, an older adult; in indoor pools,
outdoor pools, and the ocean—but she was pleasantly surprised. Who knew that swimming
could be quite so exciting and frustrating and maddening and frightening and
excruciating….all in a matter of minutes? And Bening and Foster are absolutely marvelous
as the lead characters, navigating their decades-long friendship as they pursue a rather
crazy goal. The result is an inspiring and satisfying film.

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS WOMAN?

LEYMAH GBOWEE

Time for a little confession. The Womonscape Times has been in print for over a decade now, and
during that time we’ve been privileged to learn and write
about many incredibly remarkable women. Unfortunately, we
have neglected to create an index or even a list of all the
women featured in this newsletter. There is a strong
possibility that we may have featured Leymah Gbowee in a
previous issue. But if we have, we think her story is important
to revisit, especially right now. During this time of year we
often hear inspirational messages of peace; yet our world
continues to struggle with this concept on a practical level.
Gbowee’s story is both inspirational and practical.

For those who have not heard of her or do not remember her
story, Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a peace activist from West Africa. Born in 1972 in Liberia,
Gbowee was the fourth daughter in a middle-class family. When she was a child, her family
moved to the capital city, Monrovia, where her father worked for a national security agency and
her mother worked in a hospital pharmacy. When she graduated from high school in 1989,
Gbowee planned to study medicine. But this plan quickly faded with the onset that year of the
First Liberian Civil War. The war traumatized her mother and forced Gbowee to become a
caregiver for her mother, her sisters’ children, and nearly 20 friends and extended family
members who sought shelter in the family home. As she describes those early months of the war,
she regularly began witnessing horrific expressions of wartime violence perpetuated by men: “men
shooting at innocent people, men killing each other, men raping, men being the bad guys.” The
months of war stretched into years, and Gbowee began a long-term relationship with her high
school boyfriend. The couple had a total of four children, but their living situation and their
relationship became increasingly unstable. For a while they lived in a refugee camp in Ghana to
avoid the violence of the civil war, but they struggled to earn enough money to provide basic
necessities. On top of that, Gbowee’s boyfriend became violent.

So, at the age of 25, Gbowee took her children and hitchhiked back to Liberia to be closer to her
family. She was, by her own account, “angry, broke, and virtually homeless” and she realized that
years of abuse and extreme poverty had led her to feel helpless over her life circumstances.
Fortunately, the First Liberian Civil War ended in a ceasefire at about this time, and the United
Nations offered a program to train social workers in Liberia to help its citizens recover from the
trauma of war. Gbowee enrolled in the U.N. program and became a counselor for women who had
experienced soldiers sexually assaulting their bodies and children who had witnessed soldiers
murdering their parents. During this time Gbowee joined Africa’s first regional peace
organization, the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and helped found the
Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), becoming the WIPNET’s Liberian coordinator.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, she also adopted a fifth child.

But while things were definitely going better for Gbowee, the Liberian dictator, President Charles
Taylor, and his political opponents were leading the country back to war. This time the conflicts

(Continued on next page)

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Womonscape. Serving Women. Enriching Lives.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS WOMAN?

LEYMAH GBOWEE (Continued from page 5)

also included nearby military factions in both Sierra Leone and Guinea. After two years of peace,
Liberia became embroiled in the Second Liberian Civil War, and the struggle so decimated the
ranks of the various armies that the combatants began arming little boys, training them to kill
without remorse.

During this tumultuous time, Gbowee fell asleep in her office one night and dreamed that God
spoke to her: “Gather the women and pray for peace!” And indeed, she realized, she had come to
believe that “if any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers.” Since part of
the civil conflict in Liberia had been based on religious differences, Gbowee decided to gather both
Christian and Muslim women into the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. The group
organized women from markets, churches, and mosques to stage large demonstrations and sit-ins
in defiance of the orders of President Taylor. And the women drew international media attention
with widespread participation in a “sex strike.” They dressed in matching white T-shirts and
white hair ties, defied police by lining up where Taylor could see their protest every day, and
vowed to withhold sex from their husbands and boyfriends until the war came to an end.

When Taylor finally joined peace talks in Ghana, Gbowee led a group of Liberian women to
monitor the talks there, refusing to let the all-male delegates leave their meetings unless they
came to a peace agreement. The authorities threatened to force the women to leave, but they
stood firm, vowing to remove their clothing if necessary. According to African cultural standards,
this would have been seen as deeply humiliating for the men in power.
The delegates went back to the bargaining table and peace was achieved,
bringing fourteen years of fighting to an end. President Taylor was
forced from power and sentenced to life in prison, and Liberia elected
Africa’s first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The new era of Liberian peace also marked the beginning of a new
chapter in the life of Leymah Gbowee. After the war, she left her
children to be cared for by her sisters, and went to the United States to
formally study peacemaking and conflict resolution. Her goal was to
learn skills needed to heal and rebuild a nation in the aftermath of war.
She studied the concept of restorative justice, which is based on the
combined efforts of victims and offenders to work toward conflict and
harm resolution. She addressed the United Nations on issues regarding
gender-based violence, and was the focus of an award-winning
documentary film about her work, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” (2008).

Gbowee’s personal life has not been without its struggles. For some years she abused alcohol,
leading to a life-threatening stomach ulcer. In 2009 she gave birth to a sixth child, but none of
her early relationships with men were particularly good. However, after she completed her formal
education, gave up alcohol, and became reunited with her children, she gradually settled into a
stable home life. Today she is married and raising a blended family of eight children. She has
received a Nobel Peace Prize (2011), written several books, serves on a number of peace
commissions, and has earned countless awards and honorary degrees for her work as a peace
activist. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Institute on Gender, Law, and
Transformative Peace Initiative at the City University of New York School of Law.

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS WOMAN?

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN: “A FEATHER ON THE BREATH OF GOD”

Thanks to a Reedsburg, WI, Womonscape Times reader for introducing the editors to a
book outlining the accomplishments of many little-known
women who have led fascinating lives. We will discuss one of
them in this issue and will pull out another one or two in future
issues. The source of our findings is:

She Caused a Riot: 100 Unknown Women Who Built Cities,

Sparked Revolutions, and Massively Crushed It
by Hannah Jewell

The first woman we will highlight is Hildegard Von Bingen.

Hildegard Von Bingen was born a long, long time ago and, to be
honest, most people had completely forgotten about her until
the 800th anniversary of her death. Yep, you heard that right:
800th. In 1979, the New London Consort gave what may be the
first English performances of four of Hildegard’s compositions.
Following that, in 1983, an album of her music, entitled “A Feather on the Breath of God,”
gave an even wider audience access to her work.

But music was not the only area where Hildegard excelled. Throughout her long life (she
lived to be 80, which was no small feat during an era of pretty minimal health care!)
Hildegard was a multifaceted, opinionated, and unusual woman. She was born in 1098,
the tenth child of a noble family living in Bermersheim, along the Rhine River in modern
day Germany. In those days it was customary to promise the tenth child in any family to
serve in the Catholic church, so as a girl of about eight, she was sent to live in an isolated
hilltop monastery of Disibodenberg. Hildegard lived at the monastery for nearly forty
years, along with other women from the area’s noble families. Life in the monastery was
not easy. In order to keep them away from the monks who also resided there, each woman
had as her bedroom a small, stone cell with a single window through which she could see
the outside world. They were allowed just one small meal per day in winter and two in
summer, and spent their time reading Latin, studying psalms, praying at regular intervals,
and following strict religious practices on their way to becoming practicing nuns. Not
surprisingly, many women suffered from a number of life-threatening illnesses under
these conditions, or even died.

Somehow Hildegard survived and even thrived at Disibodenberg, and in 1136, she was
appointed “prioress” (head nun) and started writing
the music for the monastery’s nuns to
sing. She wrote her own Latin verses and set them to music to create short musical
responses to be used during church services as well as full-length hymns.

Because she had not received formal training in either music or Latin, Hildegard’s poetry
and melodies are much freer and provocative than is typical of religious music. Her poetry
often focused on plants and animals from the natural world and even erotic images.

(Continued on page 8 )

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS WOMAN?

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (Continued from page 7)

For example, in Hildegard’s description of the Virgin Mary, she writes, “Your flesh has
known delight; like the grassland touched by dew and immersed in its freshness: so it was
with you, O mother of all joy.”

Modern biographers are not quite sure how Hildegard got away with writing lyrics like
these, but it might have had something to do with her headaches. Hildegard had been
having “visions” since she was a young girl, something modern scientists have attributed to
migraine headaches. When she was 42, she finally got up the courage to tell her church
colleagues about them and to describe them in writing. She wrote about these visions in a
theological book that was considered prophetic and, fortunately for Hildegard, Pope
Eugenius III sent delegates to obtain a copy of her manuscript, read the book, blessed it, and
commanded her to continue writing.

It took Hildegard ten years to finish her first book, and another thirty years to complete two
more theological books, as well as two more books which were textbooks on medicine and
natural healing. While Hildegard’s theological books were based on her visions, her books
on medicine and natural healing were based on her practical experiences tending the
monastery’s garden and using its herbs in various combinations and tinctures in order to
care for the sick. In medieval times it was women who did most of the work of doctors,
including treating illnesses, bandaging wounds, and setting broken
bones. Hildegard was considered an expert in medieval medicine,
and was one of the rare women who could read and write in Latin, so
her works are some of the very few to show how medicine of her era
was commonly practiced.

As if being a composer, theologian, and medical practitioner were

not enough, Hildegard also founded two monasteries. She wanted
more independence for her nuns, and believed that establishing her
own, woman-run monastery would be the way to do so. Abbot Kuno,
the monk in charge of Disibodenberg, was not in favor of this idea.
He declined Hildegard’s new monastery request, even when she went
over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry. But
Hildegard had the last say in the matter: she was stricken by an
illness so severe that she was apparently unable to move from her
bed, and attributed the cause of the illness to God’s unhappiness at
her not being able to establish a new monastery. Abbot Kuno finally gave in, which led to
Hildegard’s founding two monasteries for nuns, one in 1150 and the other in 1165.

Today Hildegard is known for her music, her writing, her feminism, her New Age theology,
and her sainthood. In 2012, Hildegard was formally named a saint and a doctor of the
church, one of only four women to have received this designation. She is considered the
patron saint of musicians and writers.

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Womonscape. Serving Women. Enriching Lives.

DECEMBER PUZZLE

First, here is the answer to our November Cryptoquote:

Yikes! The Womonscape Staff made an error. The completed sentence, when solved should
read:

I can say things through puppets that I couldn’t say to the children as an adult. ~ Marlene
Cummings

In the fifth word, however, we made a mistake. The corrected version is shown below:

We apologize!

E DOR HOI NBERCH NBSQWCB XWXXUNH NBON E DQWYMR’N

HOI NQ NBU DBEYMSUR OH OR OMWYN.

~ TOSYURU DWTTERCH

We are going to try this again. This month’s cryptoquote, which hopefully has no
errors, is as follows: (Hint: S = N)

XOXS SGH, K AGSBKZXF FXQPKYC Q DQMGF VPQH HTXS

KY AGDXB YG DXS.

~ QJQFSQ SQSATXFPQ

DONATIONS WELCOMED

We always appreciate donations from readers. Donations help us print and publish this newsletter. Because the
Womonscape Center, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, all donations are tax-deductible. They can be sent by mail to
Womonscape Center, Inc., PO Box 335, Richland Center WI 53581; they can also be sent online via our website:
www.womonscapecenter.org.
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Womonscape. Serving Women. Enriching Lives.

QUOTES BY WOMEN (See pages 5-8 to read about these women)

I think there is a moment in everyone’s life—we all have it—when you’re pushed
so far back against the wall, you have two options: allow that wall to swallow
you or ght back. ~ Leymah Roberta Gbowee

Don't wait for a Gandhi, don't wait for a King, don't wait for a Mandela. You are your
own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.
~ Leymah Roberta Gbowee

Like billowing clouds,

Glance at the sun. See the moon
Like the incessant gurgle of the
and the stars. Gaze at the beauty
brook,
of the Earth's greenings. Now,
The longing of the spirit can never
think.
be stilled. ~ Hildegard von Bingen
~ Hildegard von Bingen

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