Summary

In Chapter LIII, Williams compares her role in life and her mother’s role in life to the opera that she saw with her father. She includes snippets of a speech her mother made in church in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. In her speech, Williams' mother made the point that one of the two most important days in a woman’s life was the day she discovered why she was born. Following this line of thinking, Williams refers to the story of Mary and Martha from the Christian Bible. Martha prepared for a visit by Jesus while Mary sat at His feet and listened. Williams indicates that Martha had allowed her priorities to become mixed. Her mother’s inability to write in her journals makes Williams believed that her mother could not stand to mix her own priorities and allow...