Courageous Steps

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Anais Nin

Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthen by use.
Ruth Gordon

Courage is reflected in the choices we make, especially when these lead us along less commonly traveled paths.

For the past four nights I’ve been a guest of the Center for Women Writers at Salem College, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Center, a co-sponsor of Forsyth County Public Library’s “On the Same Page” program, lodged me in the Rondthaler-Gramley House—a stately, two-story residence built in 1888. At one time the College presidents lived here. Today, this splendidly restored mansion is used for meetings, social events and, of course, for housing guests. I am indebted to Ginger Hendricks, director of the Center for Women Writers, for granting me this enriching experience.

Throughout my time here I’ve been the only person staying in this huge five-bedroom manor, which sits majestically on the northern end of the delightful courtyard that’s at the heart of the campus. The serenity of the house, of Salem College, and of the neighboring historic community of Old Salem is a welcomed respite from the mayhem of Panamá City.

To be here is to step back in time. The beautifully maintained town of Salem was founded by German Moravians in 1750, and the College opened its doors in 1772. It is the oldest women’s college to operate continuously in the United States. Salem College is also the fifteenth oldest college in the nation. A person only needs to be on campus for a few moments to become acutely aware of a tradition that goes back generations, and that persists to this day: that of women who have chosen to forsake the conventions of their times in order to follow their convictions.

I’m in Winston-Salem at the invitation of the organizers of “On the Same Page” to help pay homage to four women—four sisters to be exact—who also chose to defy societal restrictions and act upon their beliefs. Every year, the steering committee behind “On the Same Page” selects a novel for the community to read and discuss in a month-long celebration. For this year, the choice was Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, a book with which I am well acquainted. My role was to present a lecture and then facilitate a discussion to help wrap up a reading festival that got underway with a visit and a talk by Julia Alvarez herself.

The organizers estimate that over 2,500 persons attended the various presentations as well as numerous book discussion groups. In addition, based on the numbers of copies checked out from the libraries and sold at local bookstores, more than 3,000 have read In the Time of the Butterflies, a novel that tells the true story of the four Mirabal sisters, three of whom were murdered on November 25, 1960 for opposing Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

“How did the sisters find the courage to stand up to such an evil dictator?” I was asked more than once. In the lecture Julia Alvarez gave during her visit, she offered us an answer: “. . . in small, incremental steps, [in the] little moments and challenges we all face every day of our lives.”

After spending several days in Salem College, it seems to me that the decision to enroll in an all-woman’s institution also constitutes an act of courage. It is valiant, I think, to choose a highly reflective environment over the more commonly treaded path of a co-educational college. At Salem College, the main pursuit seems to be self-knowledge—as opposed to the job-oriented instruction most universities impart today. Here, a young woman is able to spend her days quietly exploring her strengths—in a largely non-competitive atmosphere—so that she can discover for herself the ways in which she can best contribute to society.

When I gaze out over the campus from the second floor windows of the Roundthaler-Gramley House, I am impressed by the serenity of the campus. Salem College seems like the perfect place for a young woman to prepare herself: taking day to day, in a genuinely nurturing institution, those “small incremental steps” Julia Alvarez spoke about in her talk.

Having come to Winston-Salem to help pay tribute to four Dominican women who were cast in the same mold, I shall leave with a better understanding of the source of their courage.