Marion Roach Smith’s alternate sisterly reality, with Margaret Roach.
Me, on the swim team, before I knew the 15 Rules.
I BROKE THE RULES. In my defense, I must say that I did not break all of them–just one, though it was the most important of them all. Driving the car, there I was screaming at myself for having forgotten something, asking myself how I could ever be so stupid. And then I remembered: No sister would let me do that. Would you?
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THE TRUTH ISN’T ALWAYS FUNNY. If you want a funny list, we’ve got it. But not here. This time I’m taking on the single, galvanizing not-funny aspect of the sisterhood. And just what is that? Time. How we manage time.
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Me, on the swim team, before I knew the 15 Rules.
WHY WOULD I BE ASKED TO SPEAK at a school commencement, my daughter wanted to know? I am no one’s idea of a traditional role model. But I’ve been able to chart my life to do what I love, so my speech turned out to be a list of rules to help the girls do just that. 15 Rules for Living, from overseas travel to a certain pair of red shoes: [click to continue…]
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A SISTER-FRIEND FROM OUR extended network, writer and yoga instructor Joely Johnson Mork, sent us the following piece back in December, during which time all of us were otherwise engaged making other kinds of lists. But I keep thinking of Joely’s offering, and wanted to share it. One week after a loss she was certain she would never write about, the death of her best friend, I asked Joely, a former student in my memoir-writing class, if she thought she could simply bring in a list of thoughts related to the event. She actually she wrote a series of three lists, about her last visit with Mary. I offer them here, in another busy time of year, to again help us take stock of what we value. [click to continue…]
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BELATED, PERHAPS, but better late than never: 25 random things about our childhood, from my side of the equation, in answer to Marion’s.
1. The prefix Mar- has been a persistent, insistent sound in my life. I am named for a grandma I never met, Margaret; am granddaughter to another I revered, Marion; I am sister to a Marion, too; best friend to a Marco; ex-aide to a Martha. I am regularly called all of those names (except Marco, owing to gender realities), and answer to them by reflex. If you utter that first critical syllable, I will turn my head or come running before you form the next. [click to continue…]
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1. Our mother always tipped gas-station attendants.
2. There were stereo speakers in our kitchen.
3. Our close friends had an uncle who worked in the kitchen at the Waldorf. Their income always unsteady, supplies were sparse, but colorful; the kids ate caviar sandwiches on Wonder Bread.
4. Our English grandfather, who lived with us, played the short-rib bones between his fingers as percussion instruments. [click to continue…]
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IT’S THE HOLIDAYS, the season to make lists. I had planned to write about that, as in what’s on my list/what’s on Margaret’s. But in The Sister Project’s first week online, so many of you emailed and commented about another topic that I’m moved to take it on here. The topic? Missing your sister at this time of year. [click to continue…]
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LITTLE SISTER, BIG SISTER: A digital moment, today.
First time here? Here's the idea: The Sister Project is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in friendship or in feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top on our homepage says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: Learn more about TSP, and how to find your way around. And oh—a giant, sisterly welcome.
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men.
TSP’s Galleries were created to show off that outpouring of art and craft, poetry and prose. Come see a show or two—no ticket required, no lines to get in—and suggest others whose work we ought to showcase.
As the suffix of its name suggests, TSP's Sisterpedia is the reference section, one we’re hoping you’ll help us grow to maturity by adding your knowledge in the comments. Turn us on to new facts and figures, whether for the branch of our ‘library’ called Sistory (history from a sister point of view, from the Muses of ancient Greece to 60s Girl Groups and beyond) or the one called Sibling Science (what makes sisters tick, genetically and behaviorally). Or just click around and have a good read. See you there.
