Doodlyroses

Women can’t push back from the brink without external, structural change, and this is where we have to recognize that all of us, women and men, have a role to play to push for meaningful change. We need to ask more from the institutions that set the rules and define our lives — and we need to ask more from each other. Women need to leverage the power of unity, community and shared vision.

Too many people tend to see the need for change strictly as women’s issues, not what they really are: family and economic issues. How can we sustain healthy families and achieve a vibrant, fully employed economy if government, corporate, educational and faith-based organizations cling to outdated policies and principles that actually impede women’s ability to fulfill both their professional aspirations and family needs?

How can we achieve this kind of consensus in such polarized times as these, when pointing fingers and assessing blame passes for political debate? It all starts with acknowledging that the economic health of the country and modern American families is better served with smart, pro-family policies that enable women to maximize all of their professional skills and family responsibilities, while also enabling men to share in the caregiving far more than they already do.

Why Women Must Lean In and Push Back, by Maria Shriver

Thief Steals Laptop, Returns Data on USB Stick

The anonymous professor, who’d recently undergone surgery, decided to leave his backpack, containing keys, credit cards, various documents and his laptop, behind a door in the stairwell of his building while he popped into the laundry room. Bad move: When he returned, it was gone.

He reported the theft and canceled his credit cards, but it was the loss of his “irreplaceable” calendar that really hurt. “It is my life,” he said. “I have documented everything in it that has happened in the last 10 years and beyond.”

But in a surprising turn of events, when he went back to the stairwell a little later, most of his stuff was back. “The backpack was there again. With all the papers, calendar and credit cards. It was just the computer that was missing,” he said. “Unfortunately, I have been bad at backing up my computer.”

Luckily, he’d been robbed by the World’s Most Considerate Thief, because about a week later a USB stick containing all of his documents and personal files was delivered to his home. Despite the loss of the computer, the professor was “delighted” with the outcome, noting that laptops can be easily replaced but what’s on them often cannot. “I am very happy,” he said. “This story makes me feel hope for humanity.”

Aside from the laptop, the only other stolen item that hasn’t been returned is the professor’s library card. “Perhaps the thief needs to improve him or herself,” he said.

Cute!

(via The Escapist)