Piloting Your Life: In-Flight Entertainment (Hand in My Pocket) (Aug 13, 2019)
Welcome Back My Grateful Passengers:
This was my view on Saturday morning after rafting down the Middle Fork of the American River all day Friday and sleeping under the stars next to the river. It was our last (and only) family trip of the summer before our son heads off to college (SDSU) next week. I needed the downtime and to commune with nature.
The four of us slept side by side on the sand without a tent and I am so grateful that we live so close to such natural beauty and that we were able to get away for a few days. I especially liked having 36 hours without access to technology, WiFi, my email, and Piloting Your Life (the book).
We followed up our two days on the river with two days at a very nice hotel in Sacramento with good food and poolside cocktail service.
There were 9 of us on our rafting trip including two guides (Luis and Otto from Costa Rica), one off-duty guide (Kat) and her best friend Ellen and sister Laura.
Kat and Ellen are approaching 30 and we ended up talking about equality and gender equity and once again, I encountered some women who don’t see that there are gaps or that inequity exists. During a conversation with Ellen (who is from Pennsylvania) I realized that I need to find a better way to approach this and thanked her for opening my eyes to this. It was at this point that she said something incredibly important; she said, “I don’t really want to see that there are challenges for me as a woman; I don’t want to have that realization.”
This is it! There are many who don’t want to see the reality of the situation whether it’s gender equity gaps, racial equity gaps, or socioeconomic gaps. To see it, one must face the possibility of either doing something about it or be complicit in allowing the gaps to continue in perpetuity.
I listened to a few podcasts and caught up on some reading over the weekend when I had access to technology. I am noodling over a more detailed blog post about the importance of representation, the inequities, and dealing with denial.
I was inspired by video clips of Simone Biles and motivated by two podcasts. One was a Recode Decode podcast episode on biohacking and intermittent fasting that made no mention of women and the other was Friday’s episode of It’s Been a Minute where I learned about the origin story of Victoria’s Secret. Spoiler: Victoria’s Secret was started by a man for other men to buy lingerie for their wives and girlfriends (essentially for the male gaze). It was never truly for women. Sigh.
I can’t end this on such a sour note. Want some good news!? The Piloting Your Life ebook was uploaded on Thursday. Definitely something to celebrate. We have just a few minor tweaks to make to the paperback manuscript and that will be uploaded this week. As for the audio book, I am targeting tomorrow to wrap that up, too. Fingers crossed on that one! Less than 3 weeks to launch! And so far the reader feedback has been amazing!
Own your greatness this week! Shine bright and let yourself fly!
Terri
P.S. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and we are cleared for takeoff. TM
Piloting Your Life (the podcast)
Song: Hand in My Pocket (Alanis Morissette)
