pressure is a privilege

I have added a new book to my reading list - Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes by Billie Jean King. When I heard the tennis legend interviewed this morning by Renee Montagne on NPR, I was immediately transported back to the night of September 20, 1973, when I was seated on the couch in the den in my family's house on Hollywood Drive in Jackson, Tennessee. I was only a fourth grader, but I remember watching King's match with Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome - the "Battle of the Sexes" - with great interest and rooting hard for her because it seemed liked my personal reputation was at stake.

It was fascinating to hear King speak today about her strategy for the match, but the most striking portion of the interview was when she reflected on the impact her victory over Riggs had on tennis - and not just women's tennis. "It's funny how when a woman does something, they only think it affects half the population. People come up to me and say, 'Thanks for what you did for women's tennis' all the time, and I know they'd never say that to a guy. If they walked up to a male, they would just say, 'Thanks for what you did for tennis.' It's interesting. I think people perceive women that way all the time, and that's not good. Because if you affect one human being, I think it's a domino effect. It changes the puzzle; it changes the framing - everything."

May the dominos continue to fall.