When I think of Ireland long ago, I shake my head over those black burkas

Thank goodness for Ireland! I have been there, Annelie has not. Such a good woman; after we married she showed me all her countries for sightseeing. Then we traveled together and there were more, Canada and boiled lobster…oh. That still leaves Ireland. I have one more country than she; this is not mere male ego, it is Texas bragging rights…

When I was in Ireland it was with the doctoral study group I was leading. In retrospect, I wish that in Dublin I had gone to see the oldest parts; unfortunately there was this conference at the cathedral. Still, I didn’t know where to look; it was not until my older cousin sent me the genealogy of our family that I knew. The first Collie to come to this country was in 1793, leaving Dublin for Georgia.

Georgia had been founded as a colony for debtors; I guess she felt at home. She must have been single, had signed indentured servant papers – they were, in fact, slaves for the five years or so of their term. She was determined to come, to start over; she signed.

So it is that I have no one who came over on the Mayflower; my daughter, down in Texas, will never be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution either. In my opinion, however, in America It is more than sufficient to lift up one’s head just to be a woman. That’s bragging rights.

I want it, WE want it, for every woman, everywhere. After studying Paul so intensely from the post-traumatic perspective, with its different sequencing of his letters, I am convinced he would agree.