What Inspired Me (and You) about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Funeral

Friday Feelings, Inspiration, Wisdom for women, women entrepreneurs, female business owners

A memory of sitting in high school writing class being assigned a creative writing piece about what we envisioned our obituary and epitaph would say, rose to mind as I biked along the autumn colored leaf path listening to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s funeral service. Typically listening to rock music to make the fitness time go by fast, I instead rode listening to final words about this amazing woman who rightfully deserved to be heard and remembered. The aura of golden light was a perfect setting for my reflective mood of a woman who dedicated her life to women’s rights.

A few of the spoken words said by the female rabbi specifically touched me heart as I proceeded on the paved road ahead:

* Bader Ginsburg once said, “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”

* Although RBG did not land a job after graduating first in her class at Columbia Law School, because no law firm would hire a female, she instead used her time to ‘evening out the rights of women and men.’

* After 5 bouts of cancer, she came back every single time more focused to press forward.

* Her legal dissents spoke to a future age, they were ‘blueprints for the future.”

The female rabbi concluded with some powerful words herself saying, “We the people must carry on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy, by rising with her strength and moving forward. Let’s be inspired by her strength, blessed with her courage, intelligence, bravery, and unbreakable in our resolve to pursue justice.”

As the final mile of my 9-mile bike ride came to an end as the silence on my earplugs was the only sound to hear after the finish of her funeral, I asked myself, “Tracy, what do you hope people will say about your life’s work?” I thought for a moment and answered myself, “I hope they say I worked passionately to inspire women to support other women financially helping to find a solution to pay inequality by creating strong economic and personal ties between women.”

What do you hope they say about your life’s work?

Like so many women before us, our life work is only rewarded partially during our lifetime, and mostly when we are gone because the issues, we try to resolve are so large and engrained in our history. As the rabbi mentioned, it takes every woman’s strength, courage, intellect, bravery and resolve to pursue equality and justice in the areas that mean the most to them. Thank you Ruth Bader Ginsburg for all you’ve done for women today and in the future. I for one am honored I lived during your lifetime.