The title is a chapter from my latest book, AWESOME: Fierce, Feisty and Fabulous…Women Game-Changing the World – an anthology/memoir celebrating 119 women ages 4-99 – whose creativity, vision, sense of style, values, activism & chutzpa has done much for the world over the past 200 years to present day.
The idea for the book started to percolate about a year and a half ago when the tumbleweeds and unending turmoil of our current president were starting to froth and furiously boil in a dark caldron – while the Democrats were heard protesting: “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble” like the witches murmuring their prophecy from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. What to do? What to do?
I have always had my head in the sand when it came to politics – whether reading or listening to it. I always steered clear from conversations that I had no business contributing to – feeling out of my league with no evidence or knowledge to back up any opinion I might have had – or even knowing what the other person was referring to. I can’t exactly tell you why – other than the fact that it was a subject that bored me from the time I was in elementary school. I couldn’t have cared less. Civics and current events were laborious and exhausting. Quite frankly, I hated all of it. My parents, however, were quite savvy politically and spent a good portion of their lives discussing, rallying, signing petitions, going to fundraisers, being conscious and caring Democrats. My father was one of the head monologue writers for Johnny Carson for 17 years. I never watched the show and never really knew what my father was writing jokes about – Reagan, Nixon, Watergate, etc. I went to bed before it aired at 11:30pm.
In 2008, I had watched one of my best friends, Anita Finlay, write a book that spent four months as the #1 book on Women in Politics on Amazon. “Dirty Words on Clean Skin…a Hillary Supporter’s Rude Awakening” started to rouse my political awareness as Anita had been fiercely blogging and was way ahead of mainstream media’s national narrative belittling women and doing their fair share of not only Hillary-bashing – but doing their best to find fault and to push down women who were telling the truth and wanted to have a voice. Even the tiniest of creatures have muscles, I used to tell her. #@AnitaFinlay
In the last year and a half, I have also been following the very talented Randy Rainbow – an uber-talented performer who has, literally, taken the world by storm with his absolutely hilarious political parodies – whose sole aim is to showcase the absurdity of the White House personnel and our fearful leader’s presidential shenanigans – while making a name for himself as a very versatile singer and lyricist who can whip up a ditty in 24-hours whenever the latest WTF news can be re-worked into brilliant and snappy new lyrics borrowed from well-known Broadway musicals. He has taken his vignettes on the road across America to sold-out audiences, even snagging an Emmy nomination in 2019 for Outstanding Short Form in a Variety Series, sadly losing to James Corden (who I’m sure had won in this category before for his hilarious Car Karaoke). This is the ART of Randy’s ACTIVISM and he has also trademarked his very stable genius with some cute, Dame Edna-esque pink glasses. Bring on that SWAG, Gurl… #@randyrainbow
Randy and Stephen Colbert have made this crazy presidency of The Donald impossibly bearable by their insight, wit and channeled rage – so I decided that, at my current age of 63, I was no longer able to sit on the sidelines, stay uninformed, not have an opinion or not get somehow, involved. The stakes have risen so high, they teeter like the stock market highs on any given day – as we await the returns of his presidential actions on the verge of an insider stock-split. We need a new dividend and a return on our investment – our sanity, our planet, our climate, our future.
Enter my ART. I have been creating my illustrations for the past eleven years. I started illustrating because my now, late husband, Ken had lost the ability to SEE. I was looking for a way to make sense of Ken’s tragic situation. I found myself using the metaphor of SIGHT – using humor and heart to create a way to find the positive out of our “perceived” negative situations. I like to say, a little “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” a little spirituality from Oprah’s “Super Soul Sunday” – peppered with some Seinfeld, Snark.
I decided to “out” myself – come clean about my lack of involvement – and while I am not a marcher, protester, phone-bank caller or canvasser – I wanted to see how I might be able to contribute my thoughts in a positive and creative way – hence this book. I took eighty-five of my illustrations and thoughts about life and paired them with other women who I researched who had/have said something similar, took a bad situation and turned it around, broke barriers, created their own brand of Awesome, and/or brought an awareness to a problem they were unwilling to ignore any longer.
My book highlights many new people you may not be as aware of – as well as some heavy hitters – as I wanted the book to feel fresh and show that any form of activism can be what works best for YOU – there is no prescribed right or wrong formula or way to contribute your talents to the world. And just acknowledging that released much of the shame I had been carrying around for so long. Topics included are: Politics and Leadership, Self-Esteem, Ageism, Wellness & Beauty, #Me, Too, Climate Change, LGBTQ, Money and Equal Pay, Creativity and Self-Esteem, Gun Violence, Climate Change, Spirituality & Public Shaming.
It’s hilarious that my mom, (who is now, 99), still watches the news and reads the paper. When I come over to her house lately, I flip on CNN or MSNBC or the debates and I am the one explaining to her all of the Democratic hopeful candidates. I am actually able to carry on a conversation and give her the low-down on what is happening. I can’t tell you how upside-down that is for me. And I’m doing it with more ease now. I won’t talk to and debate people I know are “really in the know” – but I will listen with a newly trained ear – hoping to get a nugget or two I can then explore on my own.
For more information, about AWESOME: Fierce, Feisty and Fabulous…Women Game-Changing the world, please go to https://curmudgeoncards.com/product/awesome-fierce-feisty-fabulous-women-game-changing-the-world-book/
The book, along with the accompanying art, is currently available for purchase on my website, https://curmudgeoncards.com/ Thank you so much for your support!
Elisa Goodman
T: 323.839.0128