We could think of our experience as an unfolding drama. There are scenes, actors, acts, motives, and methods - all in search of a purpose. We identify the dramatic elements as we put the pieces of our experience together in some kind of order, in some kind of sensemaking process. The story helps us to retell what's happening so we can look at it and name it and decide how to deal with it.

In our recent story, I picture scenes like those staged in a virtual Go To Meeting, in Rose's living room, in the Carnegie Museum, and in my own dining room. There were many scenes in many locations - mini-dramas where elements of the story were played out. To heighten the drama, there is villain and victim, surprise ally and silent foe, strategic moves, moments of despair, and even moments of laughter and incongruity. The absurdity and ambiguity of human behavior does not escape us. We have been punked!

When the scene pieces fall where they may, there we still are - hands on hips and heads thrown back. We are women of the hills and the plains. We have lots of stories. We've lived out lots of dramas. We even tell each other some of the darkest stories and consider how we lived through them, came through them to another place that was ok.

How did we do that? When it didn't seem possible?