Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990, died last Monday, from a stroke.   She was 87 years old.   Her detractors are ecstatic – making “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from the Wizard of Oz near the top of the charts and holding celebratory “Death Parties.”  They hold her responsible for current welfare cuts, as well as those occurring during Thatcher’s years as P.M. and even when she was the Minister of Education charged with removing milk from school lunches as a cost cutting measure.  At the time, she was known as “Thatcher-the-Milk-Snatcher.”  I’m not sure a male minister would have received the same vitriol.

Over time, the “Milk-Snatcher” took on a more ominous title: Iron Lady.  The term was first used by the Soviet Army newspaper and was not meant as a compliment, but Thatcher embraced it, calling herself the “Iron Lady of the western world” and a “cold war Warrior.”*  We still call Thatcher the Iron Lady, the woman who would not deviate in her determination to remake Britain into a nation of prominence on the world stage.  To do this, Thatcher went after anyone and anything that threatened “her” Britain, notably breaking the coal miner’s strike in 1985.  She went to war with Argentina in defense of the Falkland Islands in 1982, and won.  Thatcher supported a nuclear presence in Europe, but she also led the way to improve relations with the Soviet Union led by Mikhail Gorbachev.  She left Britain a different place than she found it.

Margaret Thatcher was not the first woman to lead a nation in the Twentieth Century, but she was the first female head of state on the global stage.  She believed in hard work and duty; individualism and private enterprise.  And she did not compromise her convictions.

The ceremonial funeral will be on Wednesday at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  It will be the biggest official funeral since the Queen Mother Elizabeth’s in 2002, with approximately 2300 invited to attend.

Margaret Thatcher touched innumerable lives and demonstrated what women can achieve.  Regardless of whether we agree with her policies, no one can deny Thatcher’s accomplishments.

*For more thoughts on Margaret Thatcher’s career, see my article “Common Denominators in Successful Female Statecraft: The Political Legacies of Queen Elizabeth I, Indira Gandhi, and Margaret Thatcher” Forum on Public Policy, Vol. 2012, No.  http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/vol2012.no1/archive/wagner.wright.pdf

The post “THE LADY’S NOT FOR TURNING” – Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013 first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

First list: Activities. I need business attire, casual clothes for doing research and normal life, dressy items for formal dining. And, of course, work out gear.

Second list: Weather. Summer is easier than Fall, Winter, or Spring. Except when it isn’t. I once was in York, England for June and July. I anticipated some inclement weather – the occasional light rain. Wrong. I wore layers every day. First, the tank top, followed by the shell, the shirt, the pull over sweater, the raincoat, and gloves. And then there was the formal dinner. I am not kidding. Good thing there was time to shop.

Let’s leave the clothes for now. What next?
Third list: Electronics. There was a time when I occasionally packed a hair dryer. Paper sufficed for everything else. Of course, that was when my cabin baggage consisted entirely of printed notes from a yearlong research trip. Now, I have a jump drive . . . somewhere. PLUS . . . on my last trip: MacBook Air, iPad, iPhone, portable hard drive, digital camera, cords and other paraphernalia. [Sidebar: I think paraphernalia is a very cool word. It means ‘stuff’ but it sounds so exotic. Can I use it in a sentence? Hmmm . . . “Let me gather my photographic paraphernalia before we get into the Jeep.”]

OK, that’s sorted. Let’s move on to “personal items/toiletries. If you have the fantasy of traveling with just a carry-on bag, everything better be in 3-ounce containers that can fit into a 1-quart plastic bag.

Back to clothing. Yes, I know. Layers. Coordinated colors – which usually translates into black, grey, white, brown, navy and beige + scarves and/or cheap clunky jewelry. Professional “packers” recommend thin fabrics. They pack smaller than wool, linen, or cotton, and you won’t have to iron them later. [Iron? Moi?] Don’t fold your clothes, roll them, and save space by stuffing your shoes.

At this point, hysteria creeps up. How many days am I gone? Would anyone notice if I wore the Tre Elegant Knit Tank Travel Dress from TravelSmithcom (http://www.travelsmith.com/tres-elegant-knit-tank-travel-dress/women/dresses/21559?defattrib=&defattribvalue=&listIndex=10 ) to the formal dinner with six forks? Would their eyes be dazzled if I paired it with my imitation Hermes scarf, or would they fixate on my all-occasion slightly scuffed gold flats? Never mind, I’ll put in the light blue sparkly cocktail dress and kitten heels.

There are lots of websites with packing tips. Two of them, complete with suggested packing lists, are “How to Pack Light” by Josie at Travelista.com http://travelista.com/packing/how-to-pack-light/ and “How to Pack Light” by Dana Sullivan Kilroy at Away.com http://away.com/travel-advice/travel-ta-how-to-pack-light-sidwcmdev_155212.html

Single most important things to pack: a genuine smile and a sense of humor – the rest does not really matter . . . much.

The post How I Attempt to Pack Light first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.