Every pot has a lid.  When I was younger, that’s what my well-meaning aunts always said to encourage me when the topic of my single status came up.  Such homespun wisdom.  Every pot has a lid.  But what if I’m not a pot?  What if I happen to be a pan, instead?  It’s possible.  I could be a sauté pan.  A sauté pan without a lid.

I make a mental list of famous spinsters.  Cleopatra…Queen Elizabeth I…Jane Austen…Susan B. Anthony…Emily Dickinson…Mary Cassatt…Helen Keller…Diane Keaton…Oprah Winfrey…Condoleezza Rice.

How did these women all end up spinsters?  Limited access to men?  Personal life sacrificed because of duty or career?  Some, no doubt, wanted to marry, but were simply never asked.  Did others cherish their freedom and willingly choose the single life?

Whatever their reasons, I count myself among them.  Who knew I was in such good company?