International Women's Day 2015

A greeting on the eighth of March.

A difficult year, and the observation I want to record is about load rather than about ceremony.

In a period when a great many families were separated for one reason or another, the practical business of keeping a household running — the income, the children, the elderly relatives, the paperwork, the decisions — fell disproportionately on women who did not choose the arrangement and did not discuss it.

That is invisible work by definition, because the measure of doing it well is that nothing appears to be wrong.

The tulips are the same as every year. This year they are inadequate in a way they usually are not.

A good day to you all.