John regretted the words as soon as they left his lips. He closed his eyes and hoped that something suddenly came up,
something like an emergency meeting in he had to fly out for or a maybe getting hit by a bus. It was to be their third
date, the one that indicated Angie was actually interested in him and he'd just agreed that to start the evening they
would attend a Womyn's Empowerment Seminar sponsored by a local feminist group.
It wasn't that John was against women's empowerment or thought that going to hear a speech might not be
interesting; he just figured that starting a date in a room full of rabid feminists might not be conducive for setting the
stage for romance. Or as he hoped, maybe even some consensual nudity later in the evening. He rested the phone in
the cradle and leaned his head back, letting out a silent curse. Mentally he wrote the evening off to bad luck.
The turn of the century hall they entered just as it got dark was neat and nicely kept, and the crowd didn't look like the
manly band of lesbians John had assumed would attend this sort of thing. He trailed his date around quietly and smiled
weakly at the few women who looked his way, the mental clock in his head already ticking towards the scheduled end
time. In the ensuing days since they planned to attend he talked Angie into a late dinner after the seminar, a quiet little
Italian place he hoped would set the mood for their next outing.
"This looks interesting, doesn't it?" Angie asked looking at one of the colorful displays in the lobby. The few women he'd
smiled at had returned hostile looks and he put himself a little more into his date's space for protection. "Do you know
the speaker?" John asked to distract himself from the attention. Angie admitted she owned a book or two by the speaker
and really liked her some of her views. Half paying attention to her and half to the room he picked up snippets of
conversation.
"I don't see why we can't castrate..."
"..better physically equipped to be astronauts, athletes..."
"... not a dialogue, more of a monologue. We know what they..."
John considered faking an upset stomach, but the doors into the main auditorium eased open and it was too late. He
followed Angie through the broad archway and into the darkness.
"Tonight's speaker," the pinched faced hostess started, "is many things. I'm sorry, I meant Keynote speaker. She is an
accomplished author with nine books to her credit, a scholar respected in her field, an educator, a social activist, a
marathoner, a sailor, a woman. She is a wife, a mother of two and I understand she makes a mean cherry cobbler." This
last brought a chuckle from the audience. "She started many years ago, many many," she looked back and grinned at
the waiting speaker," well, not that many years ago, but didn't let the times or the obstacles of society keep her from
achieving her dreams. She pulled herself up and made herself more when the world had told her that she was enough.
Where she endeavored, she has excelled. Where she has ventured, she has conquered. Wherever she looked, she
gained insight. She is a forerunner, a trailblazer, it she whose success put the cracks in the glass ceiling that we break
through today. She is a model we can look to when we falter, a leader whose footsteps we can follow when we are lost.
Ladies it is my honor to present to you, no, it is my privilege to present to you tonight's keynote speaker, my friend for a
long time, Dr. Agatha Copple, PhD."
To John's surprise the speaker was interesting. A pleasant looking woman who must have been in her seventies but could
have passed for much younger, her voice was mild but tinged with resolve. Her remarks weren't the mean spirited or
righteous tones he expected, but more informative and inspirational as Dr. Copple extolled the virtues of persistence and
how she'd been helped along her path by luck and determination, winning the admiration of colleagues and staying true
to her principles. John found himself reading through her accomplishments in the program, impressed at her nearly forty
years of work. Later when he stretched after sitting for so long her glanced around the room and noted the other
attendees in rapt attention, as though Dr. Copple had hypnotized the crowd. He got a little nervous for some reason.
After the formal program, Angie insisted that they stay a few minutes for the reception. The couple eased into a side
room off the main hall following the crowd, John with his hand on Angie's elbow so he wouldn't lose her. One of the
women they moving with noticed and gave him a look of disapproval. John shrugged.
The room was long and relatively narrow, only a little wider than the entrance hall. John looked over the crowd with
distaste and was surprised to find a decent buffet laid out. For a few minutes he actually thought they if they hung
around and ate that he might get away with just paying for a few glasses of wine and some dessert instead of a full
dinner. But Angie rebuffed his ploy and hooking him by the arm dragged him over to a small circle of women gathering
about Dr. Copple. John found himself the only man in a circle of reverent admirers. He forced another smile.
Dr. Copple had switched from speaker and more into casual conversationalist, but still holding an impromptu court and
spoke about the changing gender roles in a the economy, about health care for women and a few other topics as the
circle swelled and shrank. A few photos were taken. John looked at his watch and thought maybe he and Angie weren't
going to dinner.
A tall lanky blonde in a ankle length skirt leaned forward and asked "Dr. Copple, how did you do it? I read your biography
but I would like to hear it in your own words. ."
"Well that book wasn't well written I admit, but how I got here, that's not really important. What is important are the
lessons I learned and am able to pass on, and there are some things about private life that you keep private. "
One of the women in the front made the point that a lesson without context wasn't a lesson at all. The doctor looked her
with a sideways grandmotherly grin and said simply "Touche. You have to understand feminism when I started was in its,
well not infancy but in its adolescence, still hitting it's stride. A lot of the concepts you have the advantage of just having
we had to build on our own. Somethings we did because it was how it was done at the time, and we had other battles to
fight. More important battles."
"But how did you do it, really not the PR crap, but really." Another tall blonde, this one with glasses and a look of upper
management about her.
"Not the PR crap. I like that. I'm going to have use that. There was no magic, no book or program, I just figured out my
priorities, what was really important, the things that had to be done and balanced that against what I knew I wanted to
do."
"The things that had to be done?" John couldn't see who asked the question.
"Had to be. I had a family when I decided I wanted to go back to school. My two were still little boys, and they had to be
fed, the clothes washed, a house to keep, meals to cook, a husband to look after."
"Surely your husband helped with the housework." This came from John's left in the group.
"This was a different time. How many women in here remember their father helping with the housework? My husband
was my husband, not as you say today, my partner. He worked and I kept house. I knew...well, you could say that I
knew my role." Dr. Copple gave a knowing half smile.
"He didn't support you?" The tall blonde who started this round of questions asked in disbelief, her eyes a little wider
behind her glasses than relaxed.
"Of course he supported me. I told him I wanted to go and he paid for it." The elder doctor chuckled at her own joke.
"But.."
"Young lady," the elder doctor paused for a second and then resumed in a more pleasant tone, "young lady, my
husband went to work for eight or nine hours a day. I was a housewife. He paid the mortgage, the car note, and all the
bills and all he asked for was that I have dinner ready when he got home and to be his wife. But I decided I wanted to go
back to school, and I knew what I was getting into."
The room exhaled a bit as Dr. Copple kept took a sip from her glass, her look having moved from pleasant to a little more
serious. John got the sense she was annoyed and had he been a moderator, he would have stopped the questions right
then.
"Ms. Copple," started an oblivious brunette with an serious look equal to the doctors on her face, "I can appreciate what
you've done but this is, as we've put it, the PR crap. Like you I'm married, I have two year old and job and I'm thinking
of going back to school. What did you actually do? What were the choices you made? I need specifics."
John could tell Dr. Copple was a little pissed at not being addressed as doctor. So when she broke into a broad smile the
sole man in the group got a tingling he used to get whenever his mean older cousin looked happy to see him.
"Your situation is your situation. What worked for me might not work for you. You just have to learn to what is
important and what's not and work to make sure those things that are important are taken care of. Prioritize." Dr.
Copple said this last with a lazy zee on the final syllable.
"So you're not going to tell me?" The dark haired woman crossed her arms a little defensively and John found that he'd
been holding his breath.
The doctor's voice was like honey, but her tone belied her annoyance. "You'd really like to know? How I got two
doctorates and wrote nine books and still managed two kids? Well it was simple young lady. I learned how to make simple
meals for my kids and get them arranged for the week on Sundays, I got to where I could compartmentalize my day so I
could get shopping done and errands run and still focus on my studies, I figured out how to schedule my studying to
maximize my time and to memorize I would record myself and playback the recording while I did the housework, and
with some practice I finally able to get the blowjobs down to about two minutes."
In the momentary silence that suddenly fell over the group Dr. Copple took another sip of her drink and cut her eyes at
the younger woman, whose face had gone blank at the answer.
"I'm sorry, you got what to two minutes?" Someone in the group suddenly ventured.
"The blowjobs." Dr. Copple swirled the glass making the ice clink. John could hear it from six feet away.
"Why would you..." the dark haired woman who demanded an answer finally started, but the older woman cut her off as
the words left her throat.
"How many times have you told your husband you're too tired or not in the mood? Do that for six months and you
won't have to wonder why he cheated on you. If he's even still there. Look, I would have run errands in the morning,
cleaned house that afternoon. Have dinner on the stove, a load of laundry in the machine, two kids in the living room
and four chapters to get through before bed. And my husband comes home and wants to get a frisky. I could have said
no, I'm busy. But I wouldn't still be married today if I had kept that up. So I would turn the food on low, make sure the
kids were busy and slip upstairs, lock the door and take care of him. Then I could get back to the things I needed to do."
John had to restrain himself from clapping and fought to keep the grin off his face. A few of closer women cut their eyes
at him.
"He should have understood..." the dark haired woman had regained her composure and started back in, Dr. Copple
stopped her mid-sentence.
"Understood? You're thinking about going back to school for a month or two? Maybe he'll understand a month, but
looking at you I'm thinking you have a graduate degree, and you want another, a speciality, so you're looking at three
or four years since you're not going to want to give up your career. Maybe three years. One kid, so with job and school
you'll have maybe four hours a week for quality time with your understanding hubby. Only you'll be too tired from
everything else. So sweetie, if you don't want to walk on him and ...let's see, I'm betting it would be that woman he
works who sometimes calls the house at night and you're not sure it's about business, yeah her, if you don't want to
walk in on them in your bed, you either need to push back your education plans or learn to suck dick like a pro."
The younger woman withered and then drew herself back up and without another word turned and stalked away.
Dr. Copple swirled the ice in her glass again and looked around blithely. Anja chose that moment to decide that they
should go.
In the little Italian bistro John looked at Anja as he sipped at the wine. The mood he had hoped to set in the intimate
setting was lost as his date picked through her food. "The program was interesting," he ventured.
"Yes, I'm glad we went," she answered distractedly.
"That Dr. Copple really was something. I mean wasn't she. Her viewpoint was um...well, what did you think of what she
had to say on relationships and marriages?"
"Huh? What do I think? That old bitch is crazy." Anja said with no trace of humor and ate a forkful of pasta.
something like an emergency meeting in he had to fly out for or a maybe getting hit by a bus. It was to be their third
date, the one that indicated Angie was actually interested in him and he'd just agreed that to start the evening they
would attend a Womyn's Empowerment Seminar sponsored by a local feminist group.
It wasn't that John was against women's empowerment or thought that going to hear a speech might not be
interesting; he just figured that starting a date in a room full of rabid feminists might not be conducive for setting the
stage for romance. Or as he hoped, maybe even some consensual nudity later in the evening. He rested the phone in
the cradle and leaned his head back, letting out a silent curse. Mentally he wrote the evening off to bad luck.
The turn of the century hall they entered just as it got dark was neat and nicely kept, and the crowd didn't look like the
manly band of lesbians John had assumed would attend this sort of thing. He trailed his date around quietly and smiled
weakly at the few women who looked his way, the mental clock in his head already ticking towards the scheduled end
time. In the ensuing days since they planned to attend he talked Angie into a late dinner after the seminar, a quiet little
Italian place he hoped would set the mood for their next outing.
"This looks interesting, doesn't it?" Angie asked looking at one of the colorful displays in the lobby. The few women he'd
smiled at had returned hostile looks and he put himself a little more into his date's space for protection. "Do you know
the speaker?" John asked to distract himself from the attention. Angie admitted she owned a book or two by the speaker
and really liked her some of her views. Half paying attention to her and half to the room he picked up snippets of
conversation.
"I don't see why we can't castrate..."
"..better physically equipped to be astronauts, athletes..."
"... not a dialogue, more of a monologue. We know what they..."
John considered faking an upset stomach, but the doors into the main auditorium eased open and it was too late. He
followed Angie through the broad archway and into the darkness.
"Tonight's speaker," the pinched faced hostess started, "is many things. I'm sorry, I meant Keynote speaker. She is an
accomplished author with nine books to her credit, a scholar respected in her field, an educator, a social activist, a
marathoner, a sailor, a woman. She is a wife, a mother of two and I understand she makes a mean cherry cobbler." This
last brought a chuckle from the audience. "She started many years ago, many many," she looked back and grinned at
the waiting speaker," well, not that many years ago, but didn't let the times or the obstacles of society keep her from
achieving her dreams. She pulled herself up and made herself more when the world had told her that she was enough.
Where she endeavored, she has excelled. Where she has ventured, she has conquered. Wherever she looked, she
gained insight. She is a forerunner, a trailblazer, it she whose success put the cracks in the glass ceiling that we break
through today. She is a model we can look to when we falter, a leader whose footsteps we can follow when we are lost.
Ladies it is my honor to present to you, no, it is my privilege to present to you tonight's keynote speaker, my friend for a
long time, Dr. Agatha Copple, PhD."
To John's surprise the speaker was interesting. A pleasant looking woman who must have been in her seventies but could
have passed for much younger, her voice was mild but tinged with resolve. Her remarks weren't the mean spirited or
righteous tones he expected, but more informative and inspirational as Dr. Copple extolled the virtues of persistence and
how she'd been helped along her path by luck and determination, winning the admiration of colleagues and staying true
to her principles. John found himself reading through her accomplishments in the program, impressed at her nearly forty
years of work. Later when he stretched after sitting for so long her glanced around the room and noted the other
attendees in rapt attention, as though Dr. Copple had hypnotized the crowd. He got a little nervous for some reason.
After the formal program, Angie insisted that they stay a few minutes for the reception. The couple eased into a side
room off the main hall following the crowd, John with his hand on Angie's elbow so he wouldn't lose her. One of the
women they moving with noticed and gave him a look of disapproval. John shrugged.
The room was long and relatively narrow, only a little wider than the entrance hall. John looked over the crowd with
distaste and was surprised to find a decent buffet laid out. For a few minutes he actually thought they if they hung
around and ate that he might get away with just paying for a few glasses of wine and some dessert instead of a full
dinner. But Angie rebuffed his ploy and hooking him by the arm dragged him over to a small circle of women gathering
about Dr. Copple. John found himself the only man in a circle of reverent admirers. He forced another smile.
Dr. Copple had switched from speaker and more into casual conversationalist, but still holding an impromptu court and
spoke about the changing gender roles in a the economy, about health care for women and a few other topics as the
circle swelled and shrank. A few photos were taken. John looked at his watch and thought maybe he and Angie weren't
going to dinner.
A tall lanky blonde in a ankle length skirt leaned forward and asked "Dr. Copple, how did you do it? I read your biography
but I would like to hear it in your own words. ."
"Well that book wasn't well written I admit, but how I got here, that's not really important. What is important are the
lessons I learned and am able to pass on, and there are some things about private life that you keep private. "
One of the women in the front made the point that a lesson without context wasn't a lesson at all. The doctor looked her
with a sideways grandmotherly grin and said simply "Touche. You have to understand feminism when I started was in its,
well not infancy but in its adolescence, still hitting it's stride. A lot of the concepts you have the advantage of just having
we had to build on our own. Somethings we did because it was how it was done at the time, and we had other battles to
fight. More important battles."
"But how did you do it, really not the PR crap, but really." Another tall blonde, this one with glasses and a look of upper
management about her.
"Not the PR crap. I like that. I'm going to have use that. There was no magic, no book or program, I just figured out my
priorities, what was really important, the things that had to be done and balanced that against what I knew I wanted to
do."
"The things that had to be done?" John couldn't see who asked the question.
"Had to be. I had a family when I decided I wanted to go back to school. My two were still little boys, and they had to be
fed, the clothes washed, a house to keep, meals to cook, a husband to look after."
"Surely your husband helped with the housework." This came from John's left in the group.
"This was a different time. How many women in here remember their father helping with the housework? My husband
was my husband, not as you say today, my partner. He worked and I kept house. I knew...well, you could say that I
knew my role." Dr. Copple gave a knowing half smile.
"He didn't support you?" The tall blonde who started this round of questions asked in disbelief, her eyes a little wider
behind her glasses than relaxed.
"Of course he supported me. I told him I wanted to go and he paid for it." The elder doctor chuckled at her own joke.
"But.."
"Young lady," the elder doctor paused for a second and then resumed in a more pleasant tone, "young lady, my
husband went to work for eight or nine hours a day. I was a housewife. He paid the mortgage, the car note, and all the
bills and all he asked for was that I have dinner ready when he got home and to be his wife. But I decided I wanted to go
back to school, and I knew what I was getting into."
The room exhaled a bit as Dr. Copple kept took a sip from her glass, her look having moved from pleasant to a little more
serious. John got the sense she was annoyed and had he been a moderator, he would have stopped the questions right
then.
"Ms. Copple," started an oblivious brunette with an serious look equal to the doctors on her face, "I can appreciate what
you've done but this is, as we've put it, the PR crap. Like you I'm married, I have two year old and job and I'm thinking
of going back to school. What did you actually do? What were the choices you made? I need specifics."
John could tell Dr. Copple was a little pissed at not being addressed as doctor. So when she broke into a broad smile the
sole man in the group got a tingling he used to get whenever his mean older cousin looked happy to see him.
"Your situation is your situation. What worked for me might not work for you. You just have to learn to what is
important and what's not and work to make sure those things that are important are taken care of. Prioritize." Dr.
Copple said this last with a lazy zee on the final syllable.
"So you're not going to tell me?" The dark haired woman crossed her arms a little defensively and John found that he'd
been holding his breath.
The doctor's voice was like honey, but her tone belied her annoyance. "You'd really like to know? How I got two
doctorates and wrote nine books and still managed two kids? Well it was simple young lady. I learned how to make simple
meals for my kids and get them arranged for the week on Sundays, I got to where I could compartmentalize my day so I
could get shopping done and errands run and still focus on my studies, I figured out how to schedule my studying to
maximize my time and to memorize I would record myself and playback the recording while I did the housework, and
with some practice I finally able to get the blowjobs down to about two minutes."
In the momentary silence that suddenly fell over the group Dr. Copple took another sip of her drink and cut her eyes at
the younger woman, whose face had gone blank at the answer.
"I'm sorry, you got what to two minutes?" Someone in the group suddenly ventured.
"The blowjobs." Dr. Copple swirled the glass making the ice clink. John could hear it from six feet away.
"Why would you..." the dark haired woman who demanded an answer finally started, but the older woman cut her off as
the words left her throat.
"How many times have you told your husband you're too tired or not in the mood? Do that for six months and you
won't have to wonder why he cheated on you. If he's even still there. Look, I would have run errands in the morning,
cleaned house that afternoon. Have dinner on the stove, a load of laundry in the machine, two kids in the living room
and four chapters to get through before bed. And my husband comes home and wants to get a frisky. I could have said
no, I'm busy. But I wouldn't still be married today if I had kept that up. So I would turn the food on low, make sure the
kids were busy and slip upstairs, lock the door and take care of him. Then I could get back to the things I needed to do."
John had to restrain himself from clapping and fought to keep the grin off his face. A few of closer women cut their eyes
at him.
"He should have understood..." the dark haired woman had regained her composure and started back in, Dr. Copple
stopped her mid-sentence.
"Understood? You're thinking about going back to school for a month or two? Maybe he'll understand a month, but
looking at you I'm thinking you have a graduate degree, and you want another, a speciality, so you're looking at three
or four years since you're not going to want to give up your career. Maybe three years. One kid, so with job and school
you'll have maybe four hours a week for quality time with your understanding hubby. Only you'll be too tired from
everything else. So sweetie, if you don't want to walk on him and ...let's see, I'm betting it would be that woman he
works who sometimes calls the house at night and you're not sure it's about business, yeah her, if you don't want to
walk in on them in your bed, you either need to push back your education plans or learn to suck dick like a pro."
The younger woman withered and then drew herself back up and without another word turned and stalked away.
Dr. Copple swirled the ice in her glass again and looked around blithely. Anja chose that moment to decide that they
should go.
In the little Italian bistro John looked at Anja as he sipped at the wine. The mood he had hoped to set in the intimate
setting was lost as his date picked through her food. "The program was interesting," he ventured.
"Yes, I'm glad we went," she answered distractedly.
"That Dr. Copple really was something. I mean wasn't she. Her viewpoint was um...well, what did you think of what she
had to say on relationships and marriages?"
"Huh? What do I think? That old bitch is crazy." Anja said with no trace of humor and ate a forkful of pasta.
This is semi-based on a semi-true story, and makes me realize that sometimes the
glossed over made up world is better for sensibilities, although not necessarily better
for lives.
glossed over made up world is better for sensibilities, although not necessarily better
for lives.
