As I write this, a honking cacophony of hundreds of Canada geese serenades me. In the last few years, I’ve come to expect this seasonal frenzy of test flights and day-and-night-long imperative squawking. Why do they honk all night long? It’s a complicated hierarchy commanding the formations necessary for migration.
One morning, soon after an undisturbed sleep, I will wake up to a quiet, empty beach. Who knows where they all go. The smaller, quieter Brandt geese that have migrated from the high Arctic to overwinter in Comox will keep me company over the winter.
Watermarked for September
Chapter 9: Moving On
This month’s installment examines how siblings separate as they grow older, how secrets divide them and their paths diverge. How to maintain childhood intimacy? How to rediscover it in later years?
At the cottage on Thanksgiving weekend, young adult Stéphanie wants to trust Brianna with the secret of her rape. Brianna withholds her knowledge of her half-sister, Sophia, not realizing Stéphanie already knows.
Honouring Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem
Dolly Parton
Dolly did not like to be thought of as a feminist. She was a philanthropist. She worked within the system, using her power—her constructed Jessica Rabbit physique, her work ethic, and her musical talents—to attract the attention of the people with power (males) and effect the changes she believed in. That’s one way to get in the door and at the table.
Laura Marling interviewed her and Emmylou Harris in 2016 at the time of their Trio album re-release (including Linda Ronstadt). Laura Marling asked what it was like being women working in recording studios. Dolly agreed that while women were always outnumbered, she and Emmylou felt like “one of the boys”, musicians first, working to serve the song, the goal of everyone in the studio. No problem. For Dolly, her competency kept all the doors open. She recorded over 1000 songs.
She maximized her talents and generated the wealth to support her advocacy agenda—health for the socially disadvantaged—a hospital for children, mRNA vaccination technology with Moderna, literacy via her Imagination Library, allyship for homosexual relationships, and scholarships for her employees and families at Dollywood.
She knew how to attract attention, have fun and get a lot of hard stuff done all at the same time.
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem, a second-wave feminist, had a different approach—change the system to recognize reproductive rights, equality in the workplace, and freedom from violence and harassment. She rallied to support women during pregnancy and childrearing and sought recognition for unpaid work (domestic, eldercare, volunteering, etc.)
It was the 70s. There was no internet or email or personal computers. Communication was through newspapers, radio, TV, gatherings, rallies and magazines. MS Magazine, founded in 1972 by Ms Steinam, a journalist. In its inaugural issue, women who had chosen abortion stood up to be counted.
Here in Canada, Chatelaine magazine, with Doris Anderson as editor, also championed feminist issues. As a young fertile feminist in the 70s and 80s, I supported the CARAL and the abortionist Morgentaler.
And while there are still geographic and financial limitations to abortion access, since 1988, abortion on demand is a legal, healthcare decision in Canada. Nobody else gets to decide. Despite everything that Ms Steinem achieved, she lived to see reproductive rights rolled back in her country.
Emma Watson (yes, that Harry Potter Emma Watson) writes about Ms. Steinem in The New Yorker with the perspective of a millennial feminist.
“The patriarchy is not something we live conveniently outside of. We were born inside it; it lives inside us. It has shaped our ideas of beauty, love, goodness, success, and safety, and we cannot simply announce ourselves liberated and be done with it.”
Gloria’s Foundation is establishing her New York home as a permanent site for organization and activism.
Being a feminist in 2026 means wanting equal work for equal pay, a society free from violence and sexual harassment, equal opportunity for advancement, contraception and reproductive rights and access to abortion and having value in society as beyond being obedient, fertile, f***able and feminine.
It means responding to the specific needs of girls and women of all ages, abilities, orientations, identifications and class. It means big tent feminism.
All of us must do more work to advance opportunities and protections for all females and female-identifying persons in society.
Meanwhile, I recommend listening to Trio and the beautiful vocal harmonies of Linda, Emmylou and Dolly.
Watermarked for October:
Chapter 10: To The Island
This story will be posted on October 15th. I’ll be in Italy riding a bike in Puglia but am keeping my promise to publish a story each month.
The cover of the collection comes from this story— A fall lake in Quebec, just north of Montreal. Loons leaving to overwinter at the sea. A wistful mother reflecting on her failings as a mother.
Claire swims in the lake, reflecting on the vulnerabilities of widowhood and aging. With Stéphanie’s pregnancy, will she get a second chance to love her daughters and grandchild?
Thanks again for reading and commenting. I look forward to sharing more with you in November.
Carolyne