The many faces of strength

In the poem For Strong Women, Marge Piercy describes strength this way:

A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.

This is a different kind of strength than we are used to hearing about in our patriarchal culture. But in my experience, when I've seen both women and men demonstrating true strength (as opposed to macho bluster), its been the type Piercy is referring to.

Yesterday, when talking about this kind of strength, I ended with a song. In response, @AlisaJass tweeted to me that South African Singer Lira will be singing that very song for President Obama at the Ambassadors Inaugural Ball tomorrow night. Now there's a serendipitous moment for you!

All that inspired me to make this video as my celebration of the 2nd inauguration of President Obama. Before you watch it, I'd like to say that all of the pictures I chose represent - to me - the kind of strength I'm talking about. I purposefully avoided putting them in any kind of order or category because I think that better represents the many faces of strength.

Enjoy.