http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202891.html
The Washing: In the Muslim custom of bathing the dead, she found a deep sense of reward — and shaved off 40 sins
In the Washington Post
by Reshma Memon Yaqub
Thank you for suggesting this, Alice. It was beautiful. The writer was very specific in the actions she had to go through and why and it really helped me, the reader, understand a culture different from my own. The lead is appealing. It makes the reader wonder why the heck someone is washing a corpse in the first place and really entices. This essay is mostly scene. If there was an anecdote, then I don’t remember it. But the scene is really enough. I like how she used the scene to talk about her own mortality and the community of her faith system. It worked very well.
Labels of Married Life, in a New Light
In the New York Times
By MARGOT PAGE
I’m trying to look past the pretentiousness of this article to see it for what it is. It’s definitely a personal essay about something a woman had worked through and I’ll try to appreciate it for that. It had a little bit of scene and a little bit of anecdotal elements to it but it focused more on the woman’s inward struggles. Most of the story was in her mind and her questioning the meanings behind words. The whole thing seemed pretty juvenile. There wasn’t much to draw me in and there wasn’t much of a story to follow. Really, I didn’t like it. Maybe if she talked about what led her to have such images of the words, it would have more of a draw. I’m wondering if she had some kind of crazy experience with her parents or something to make her hate the words so much. The lead was a bit boring. The end was good in a sense that she closed it off well. I think it’s silly that she’s become ok with the words husband and wife just because the gay community uses them. But whatever.
It wasn’t until the end of the Page essay, I think, that she is clear about when she got married – 30 years ago – when aversion to these labels was part of a widespread rebellion against what many saw as confining gender roles, with the female role usually being less valued and appreciated. It would have helped if she had said this earlier on because it would provided a larger cultural framework for her difficulty using the terms. My 2-cents.