{"id":78,"date":"2021-10-29T12:55:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/?p=78"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","slug":"woman-for-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/woman-for-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"WOMAN FOR THE WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This lyric, from my musical JANE AND ELLEN AND MARY<\/em>, is an exchange between social work pioneer and Nobel Prize-winning peace activist Jane Addams and her oldest friend, Ellan Gates Starr, as both near the end of their lives. Jane is ruing her lifelong failure at fully embracing a close personal relationship. Ellen, who once desperately wanted that relationship with Jane, has come to realize that Jane could only have poured her love into a general benevolence for humankind. In writing it I was working out the puzzle that some people\u2014some great people\u2014are not quite made for personal love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

ELLEN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

YOU HAVE LIVED YOUR LIFE, <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT CANNOT CHANGE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT YOU DID OR DIDN\u2019T DO<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU CAN\u2019T REPLACE OR REARRANGE.  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I WAS ALWAYS LOOKING<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAR BEYOND<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCCUPIED AND SELF-ABSORBED, <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I NEVER BOTHERED TO RESPOND    <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I KEPT APART  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INSTEAD OF LOVING FULLY THOSE RIGHT NEXT TO ME <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO SHOULD BE CLOSEST TO MY HEART <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I PLAYED THE ROLE OF WOMAN FOR THE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELLEN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

THE MILLIONS IN THE WORLD WHO LOOK TO YOU<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DON\u2019T NEED A WOMAN LOVING ONE OR TWO <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY WANT THE JANE WHOSE ARMS ARE OPEN WIDE <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY NEED THE SAINT TO BE THEIR GUIDE.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M NOT AS STRONG OR WISE OR WARM <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AS ALL THOSE MILLIONS MAKE ME OUT TO BE <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019VE BEEN WEAK AND I\u2019VE BEEN WRONG.  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND NOW I WON\u2019T BE ANYTHING FOR LONG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ELLEN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BUT WE NEED HER!<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT ONE AND ONLY JANE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO\u2019S ALWAYS READY FOR THE FIGHT<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO MATTER WHAT THE ODDS OR PAIN  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WE NEED TO KNOW<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU KEPT THE FAITH, YOU DIDN\u2019T FALTER AT THE END<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT\u2019S THE JANE I NEED<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT\u2019S THE JANE \u2013<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

STANDING FOR WHAT\u2019S RIGHT!<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOLLOWING THE LIGHT  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A WOMAN FOR THE WORLD.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU MUST BE THAT JANE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I MUST BE THAT JANE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I AM THAT JANE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A WOMAN FOR THE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELLEN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

YOU MUST BE THAT JANE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I AM THAT JANE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>ELLEN, JANE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A WOMAN FOR THE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

This lyric, from my musical JANE AND ELLEN AND MARY, is an exchange between social work pioneer and Nobel Prize-winning peace activist Jane Addams and her oldest friend, Ellan Gates Starr, as both near the end of their lives. Jane is ruing her lifelong failure at fully embracing a close personal relationship. Ellen, who once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}