"Soul"-filled Saturdays

Since film awards shows are coming up (albeit a little later than usual), I have started my yearly trek to watch as many as the nominated films and documentaries as possible. Even though nominations aren’t out yet, it’s clear what some of the frontrunners will be so I can still get started. A few weeks ago I watched the Pixar animated film “Soul”. I loved this movie so much! Pixar usually does no wrong, and this one did not disappoint. The film was a great reminder to appreciate the little, everyday things in life. It also told how you don’t always have some predestined “higher purpose” in life that you constantly are trying to obtain. While striving to be the best of the best and this sought after achievement, you can very easily miss many wonderful things that surround you day by day. It certainly was a great reminder to me to sit back and take in the beauty around me, whether it be a lightly falling snowfall, a red sky at sunrise, Lola sprinting in the new snow, bright red cardinals eating at the bird feeder.... There really is a lot to take in and appreciate. ​

Also in the past two weeks I completed an EdX online educational series called “Women Have Always Worked” from Columbia University. It was a four-class series that I started back in the spring. I also finished a Harvard EdX course called Women Making History: Ten Objects, Many Stories. I found all five classes fascinating and learned a lot. It made me look in to taking some actual women’s history or gender study classes to work on another degree… but that’s a ways down the road.
​Coincidentally it was a great time to learn about the struggle of women over American history and the fight for equality. When I read all the presidential biographies, women were rarely mentioned, and rarely in positions of power and influence. I realize now it was certainly a male-dominated, white-washed version of US history that I received. These classes opened up a whole different side and an entire new way of thinking. These classes also came at a great time in current history as we have elected our first female vice president to office. All very fitting.

I was itching to get out and about so I took a trip to the “city” on another Saturday. My first stop was the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum. It is crazy to me that this amazing woman and so much history is right in Rochester yet I never knew of it or learned much about it before. So, on a snowy Saturday, I trekked over and received a one-on-one tour. The tour guide was great and it was really cool to have a personalized conversation since it was just the two of us. I highly recommend checking out the museum if in the Rochester area. There were great artifacts from the suffragist movement. It was amazing to know Ida B. Wells, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass and others spent time and put their brains together with Anthony in that house. Goosebumps!

The main visitor center was Susan’s sister’s house while the other was Susan’s. The museum is nestled in a quaint, quiet neighborhood. There is a park right down the block with a statue of Anthony, clearly telling a man how things should be! And I loved that someone also made sure she was warm on the snowy day and gave her a scarf.

After the Susan B. Anthony trip, I grabbed some Chik fil A and Starbucks, perused through Home Goods and a large antique center and then went home. It was really a great day to just get out of the house and get up and around while still staying safe during the pandemic. It fulfilled some little pleasures in my life, too, just as “Soul’s” Joe and 22 taught me to.