Currently I am reading Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened? It recounts her story of what went wrong in her bid for the 2016 US election. In it she reveals much about her childhood, education, marriage and motherhood, early professional life and fascinating political career. A first wave Boomer, her memoir shows just how far women have come in the past seventy years and, sadly, how far we still have to go. For whatever you think of Hillary Clinton and her politics, there is no denying that she is a supremely capable, well-educated, highly intelligent woman, who brings with her a vast amount of experience in the field of national and international politics, as well as a deep passion for justice, especially for the children of this world.
While she is the first to acknowledge that hers has been a very privileged life, there have also been major disappointments along the way. Her failure to win the highest seat in the land must count as the most crushing defeat of all. How does she keep going? She gives the credit to her friends, both women and men, many of whom she has known since childhood or university.
Especially since she has moved into her more mature years, she says that these friendships are more important than ever. As she observes, “studies show that when seniors interact on a regular basis with friends, they have fewer problems with memory and depression, greater physical mobility and are more likely to get regular physical check-ups.” For this reason, she says, she is holding on even more to her friendships.
These years are important ones for nurturing old friendships and building new ones. As Clinton notes, friendships “literally make us strong.”
Boomerality 