Dear Kid,

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending A Conversation with Lisa Ling (she’s the one who’s not Lucy Liu). I didn’t tell you about it then because that was during the Days of Technical Difficulty (thank you for your patience during that time).

Last Wednesday, The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation sponsored Lisa Ling as a speaker.

The event was at Memorial Hall, so I put on my big girl pants and drove downtown.

Memorial Hall is gorgeous. Badly in need of significant renovation which it is getting this summer, but absolutely gorgeous.

The arch over the stage has words inscribed on it. The words are the Nine Virtues important to how we conduct our lives. They are Unity, wisdom, patriotism, equity, will, integrity, manliness, martyrdom, philanthropy. Wait, What? Manliness??

Well, er, yes. Back then women had to make important decisions in private and men had to be studly. I have no idea what the plans are for the manliness virtue during the renovation. I have my own ideas, but no one has asked me.

Lisa Ling #AmazeLing was fantastic. She talked about sex trafficking in the US (more commonly called prostitution), she told stories about being in Iran as a correspondent for Channel One and how women were treated there (by men and by other women), she talked about her sister being kidnapped from China by the North Koreans and Lisa’s fight to get her sister back. She made us think about the world and our place in it.

She also talked a bit about the upcoming season of This is Life (the show she produces and hosts on CNN). It will be interesting as all get out.

Great event, great evening. Kudos, cheers, and a thousand thanks to Vanessa Freytag (Exec Director of The Women’s Fund and all around extraordinary person) and everyone who worked with her.

Love, Mom