"Provide, Provide" by Robert Frost

The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag,
Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.
Too many fall from great and good
For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.
Or if predestined to die late,
Make up your mind to die in state.

Make the whole stock exchange your own!
If need be occupy a throne,
Where nobody can call you crone.

Some have relied on what they knew;
Others on simply being true.
What worked for them might work for you.

No memory of having starred
Atones for later disregard,
Or keeps the end from being hard.

Better to go down dignified
With boughten friendship at your side
Than none at all. Provide, provide!

--Robert Frost



This poem...this poem, I think, rings the bell of my feminism. There is this idea out there that a woman's worth is determined by her appearance. I have known a few people - men and women - who subscribe to that theory and seen the evidence of it even more. Frost saw some of the same thing.

Abishag is the woman from 1 Kings 1:
2 Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her acherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.


3 So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.


4 And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.

Abishag is there to be pretty, and she's valuable because she's young and inexperienced. The life she has is available to her only because of traits that will quickly pass away. When she grows up and becomes a whole person, it is taken away. That's the soft power I spoke of concerning the Farrah Fawcett quote.

So Frost sees this and recommends turning the soft power into hard power. Treated like cattle? Use your moment in the sun to buy the stock exchange. Whatever you choose, decide something. Decide your own fate. Provide for your life, or else a life will be handed to you. It may contain scrubbing floors for a living.

Katherine Heigl gets a lot of criticism for being, well, uppity. I really like her, and not just because she's not wrong when she calls movies sexist. She has her own production company, and she named it Abishag Productions. She's aware of the value she brings to others, and she's determined to use that to provide for herself. Good for her.

In an ideal world, personal appearance would not be a commodity. Turning personal appearance to something tangible and governable is making the best of the world we have.