In the past three weeks Julia, Cartimandua and Tanaquil have each urged me to keep in touch. Whether they missed me or each other, or just liked the attention, I will never know with certainty. Not that it matters. Our meetings bridge time and distance (700 BC to 2011 AD is time, Britain, Rome and America is distance). The meetings fill me, and I hope the other three, with the palliative joy of communion with kindred spirits. The exigencies of daily life, consuming all my energy these past few weeks, slipped into the outer edges of my mind. Front and center during our next visit were: Julia's problems with her Emperor-father, Augustus, playing god with her life; Cartimandua's struggles to keep her concern for her British tribe in its dealings with an ever encroaching 1st century Roman takeover separated from her tumultuous personal happiness: Tanaquil's tight rope role in making Tarquinius King of Rome, a century before the other two. These women made me feel insignificant. Who was I? What had I accomplished that I should hope to be counted among their number?
I had but uttered my doubts when Julia, in Julia style, said, "Ye gods. Do you not know that you are the nucleus of this group? How else would we exist except for you and people like you?"
My ego stretched; my soul soared. Was it possible? In the end my insecurity won. "How can you say that? In the scheme of things I have done what, compared to you, who each in your own ways have shaken the world? True some people know who I am, but not like you. The whole world, now and for ages, knows you."
Julia cackled as only Julia can. Tanaquil with a controlled smile said, "And how are we known?"
How were they known? I realized they were known because they are held in the repeated memories of generation after generation. Their lives are preserved in the pictures, songs, teachings and writings of artists, writers and teachers and passed down. Classic teachers and writers like me. My ego regained its equilibrium. I will continue to share my stories of the remarkable women of history. Everyone should know the real Julia, the real Tanaquil, the real Cartimandua. And others who have not yet joined our group. Until the next time.
