{"id":1228,"date":"2009-10-22T10:55:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T17:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2018-02-07T13:02:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T18:02:21","slug":"maybe-it-should-be-%e2%80%9ccertain-women-for%e2%80%a8-the-age%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/maybe-it-should-be-%e2%80%9ccertain-women-for%e2%80%a8-the-age%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe It Should Be \u201cCertain Women for\u2028 the Age\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 2009<\/p>\n

\"colin08\"The amazing thing about this issue featuring the 10 Most Intriguing People in Maine, which we at Portland Magazine<\/em> nickname the \u201cPeople\u201d issue, is what happened this year after we sifted through the many recommendations for entries that came in from readers, writers, sidewalk social critics, and even a few disinterested parties. Taken as a whole, and to a degree that is statistically significant, the votes showed that the culture has swung \u2019round not so much to embrace women who are \u201cof a certain age\u201d (many of whom detest the ambiguities of that phrase) as women who are certain.<\/p>\n

All of this just as Time<\/em> magazine has anointed Senator Olympia Snowe not just the most intriguing person in Maine, but the most intriguing person in the United States. It\u2019s as if the whole country is looking for a grownup to guide us on the right path, and we\u2019ve decided she\u2019s the one.<\/p>\n

It used to be, \u201cBusiness is sexy.\u201d In the case of a whole series of independent Maine politicians, from Margaret Chase Smith to Ed Muskie to Olympia Snowe, considered the linchpin vote in the national health-care debate, \u201cfairness is sexy.\u201d \u201cReasonableness is sexy.\u201d \u201cIntegrity is sexy.\u201d And if you possess this kind of character-driven allure, the world will beat a path to your door.<\/p>\n

In our present atmosphere of callow recriminations and celebrity event planning, why else would Peter Orszag, our nation\u2019s director of the Office of Management and Budget, be up here in Portland, \u201cinterrupt[ing] his Maine vacation\u2026to have dinner with Snowe and an aide\u201d at Emilitsa, according to Time<\/em> magazine? To find direction himself? To witness her incorruptibility first-hand? Maybe he wasn\u2019t up here looking for true north so much as true.<\/p>\n

Every year, the individuals chosen as the 10 Most Intriguing People can be seen as the collective answer to an unasked question welling deep in our readers\u2019 desires. Considering\u00a0 who\u2019s been chosen this year, that question is, \u201cWho dares to take untwitterable responsibility for what\u2019s happening out there, consequences be damned?\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider the six women interviewed in the pages ahead, each of them a profile in courage. None of them has opted for the easy way out.<\/p>\n

As for me, I am in love with a woman of a certain age. The first of her certain ages was 25, when we met and married, with her sense of self only refining itself through opportunities as we\u2019ve both braved the restless uncertainties ahead. In a world slick with spin zones and lies, maybe \u201ctruth is beauty\u201d should come before \u201cbeauty is truth.\u201d As we tack into 2010, never have we clamored for a place beside these women who dare to be certain\u2013even amid storms of indecision\u2013and therefore deepen their beauty.<\/p>\n

\"Colin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2009 The amazing thing about this issue featuring the 10 Most Intriguing People in Maine, which we at Portland Magazine nickname the \u201cPeople\u201d issue, is what happened this year after we sifted through the many recommendations for entries that came in from readers, writers, sidewalk social critics, and even a few disinterested parties. Taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor","tag-november-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14519,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/14519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}