Sedona AZ (February 1, 2013) – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, The Sedona Women’s February program is “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot … the History of Marriage and the New American Family,” Wednesday, February 13, 10:00 AM, at the Sedona Creative Life Center.
Presented by Sedona residents, Karen and Charlie Schudson, “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot” is a forty-five minute dramatic dialogue featuring history, humor, cinema, and two special guest stars. It is based on the groundbreaking book of Professor Stephanie Coontz, Marriage, a History – from Obedience to Intimacy / How Love Conquered Marriage.
As the Schudsons explain, many Sedonans, growing up in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, lived from times of marital stability to family upheaval. Within a single generation, “traditional” family values were forced to share space with casual sex and co-habitation, civil union and gay marriage, separation and divorce, abortion and adoption, artificial insemination and surrogate parenting, single parenting and step-parenting …
What ever happened to tradition? What, historically, really are America’s family values? How might misunderstandings of marriage history affect American attitudes, culture, law, politics, and even one’s own relationships? “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot” addresses these questions and, in Professor Coontz’s words, “why the revolutionary implications of the love match took so long to play out and why, just when it seemed unassailable, the love-based marriage” of modern times “began to crumble.”
Karen and Charlie Schudson first presented “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot” as the keynote address to the annual conference of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in San Francisco in 2007. Trying to keep pace with the rapid changes of recent years, they have updated “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot” for presentations to numerous professional groups including the Arizona judiciary.
Before retiring to Sedona three years ago, Karen Schudson was a marriage and family therapist, and executive coach. In addition to presenting “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot,” Karen has traveled throughout the country with Charlie to present “Healing the Healers,” a program they developed for social workers, police officers and other professionals working with sexually abused children. For many years, Charlie was a law professor and judge. He has been a featured guest on many shows including The MacNeil-Lehrer Report and Oprah. Currently, he is president of KeynoteSeminars, LLC, and a Fulbright Scholar teaching at law schools abroad.
On the eve of Valentine’s Day, The Sedona Women, with Karen and Charlie’s help, will try to untie America’s “Loves Me, Loves Me Knot.” The Sedona Women, Dames Who Make A Difference, meets the second Wednesday of every month at The Creative Live Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road, Sedona. A “Meet & Greet” begins at 9:30 AM with the program following at 10 AM and The Sedona Women invite all women in the Verde Valley to attend. The Sedona Women are dedicated to making a positive and lasting impact on the community by providing opportunities for women to build relationships, to learn about the community, to support community needs and to enhance the natural beauty and distinctive character of Sedona. The Word “Dame” is used in England as a title of honor – the counterpart to a Knight – and connotes commitment, integrity, passion and earned knowledge. A “Dame” is a woman of substance.
To learn more about The Sedona Women organization and membership, please visit its web-site at www.thesedonawomen.com