A Sudden Surge

It is an oft quoted line from Carl Sandburg that I have treasured since I first heard it.

“The young strangers, coming, coming, always coming.”

I remembered it again today listening to the female Speaker of the House valiantly insist her position was intact.

This was despite all the highly publicized challenges looming in her once bright future. The lady in question and I have nothing in common, and to be totally frank, I am not a member of her fan club. Despite that, I admit to feeling more than a twinge of pity as I watched her, beautifully coiffed and garbed, and poised at her Press conference this morning.

“Oh, my dear,” I thought, “it happens to all of us.” Different scenarios, different times, yet one thing in common. We all lose at a certain point in life. I am not referring to politics exclusively, rather I revert to the poet’s words.

Sometimes it is when a devoted son marries, and the beautiful bride immediately assumes the dominant role once held by a Mother. The wisest of females accepts defeat gracefully; the others fade not so gently into the night. Of course, thus is how it should be, but occasionally, every Matriarch has cause to remember Carl Sandburg’s oft quoted wisdom. .

Other times, his words are prophetic. In today’s competitive business environment when a bright young newcomer casually asks the older employee, “What exactly are your responsibilities?” That is the moment a sage woman recognizes the handwriting on the wall and updates her resume

Tragically, but truthfully, many older women have felt the pain of being replaced by a younger trophy wife in what they once believed was a good marriage. And not always by “a bright young stranger,” but merely a younger version .

Inevitably, warnings are heard the first year a holiday family dinner shrinks from a crowded table into one with a few empty chairs. Young members of the clan grow, move away, and meet the promised young stranger, and once again, the cycle of life repeats.

So despite all political differences in our past, this morning my heart broke just a bit for the illustrious Speaker of the House. But who knows, perhaps I am premature in her case, and the inevitable young stranger is not yet lurking in the shadows.