"I heeded the guidance of Madeleine Albright"
We rise again and again and again. Come on now.
How we frame our stories becomes how we frame our lives, and I have taken so many pauses through the years as the framing has escaped me, evaded me, frustrated me or confused me. I know that writing here sparked enough excitement and creativity to power articles and book proposals and a manuscript. The conversations — the collaboration — burned so beautifully. And I ascribed a weight and meaning to it that was so full of promise that it became perilous.
The goal had been — has always been — to write well enough that “the world” [editors!] would stop and think: yes, yes. I want these stories. I see now that these stories [these women; these lives; this history] is worthy of all the attention and coverage [and adventurous, dignified framing] that I never fully understood until now. All of which is to say that the marker of success for me — my duty fulfilled — looked like getting your stories into legacy publications. I believe in your stories and I believe in our words and with the embers cooking, it was starting to happen.
But then the interest faded. The responses never came. And I didn’t know how to show up here without the promise — the guarantee — that these stories and this space would be headed for something better. “Escaping me, evading me, frustrating me and confusing me.” The fading resembles a snuffing, don’t you think? But when all that’s left is a 30-month-old draft post written but unsent — because didn’t it belong somewhere better — with a reflection on a lioness of dignity, duty and adventure, well, there are worse ashes from which to arise.
And, of course, that’s not all that’s left at all… See you on Sunday.
MARCH 2, 2022 — The first woman to serve as America’s chief diplomat leaves behind a legion of mid-career and seasoned fellow diplomats who felt welcomed by her into the foreign policy world.
And then there are the young girls — coming of age decades after she served and more impacted than ever.
“She told me that when she would walk through airports, so many people would acknowledge her. But she loved when the girls would acknowledge her. At that age, you don’t normally know about a secretary of state,” Ambassador Melanne Verveer told me by phone.
“I remember when President Clinton was talking about having asked Hillary what she thought as he was soliciting opinions on who should be secretary of state,” said Verveer, who served as the first lady’s chief of staff at the time. “She said, ’Well, you know, Madeleine, is with you one of the issues, she’s a great communicator. And besides, you would make every little girl in America proud.”
Nima Patel Edwards took her daughter, Sita, to see the secretary of state in 2019 at an event for Albright’s book, Facism.”
“She had no serious idea of who she was before the event,” Nima tells me, but the now-sophomore at American University wrote a school paper that night that read, in part:
“Madeleine Albright is a badass. She spoke about her experiences and had some of the most fascinating and funny stories I have ever heard.”
“While she has had endless accomplishments from being a professor at Georgetown, Ambassador to the UN, to the first female Secretary of State by a unanimous vote by the Senate, Albright maintained her spunk, charisma, drive, and humor throughout it all, even when dealing with a Korean leader who commented on the, ‘firmness of her breasts,” Sima wrote.
“If I could talk to her, I would ask her about her experiences as the first female Secretary of State. The most impressive thing about her is not her many accomplishments, it is her ability to maintain her character and love of learning. Lastly, I would ask about the pin she was wearing while we were meeting, because every pin has a story.”
“She changed my life. Someone gave me her autobiography when I was 16. I can't remember if I had asked for it — I might have — but I know that I devoured the book. Reading it made me think maybe I could be in foreign policy too, and her story gave me the confidence to imagine my life in a national security field. I don't think I would have pursued this path with such enthusiasm if it hadn't been for her life and her writing.”