There are times in my life when I appear to get nothing accomplished, when the days seem to pass one after the other with a stultifying sameness. Or my activity will be frenzied but ineffective. I'll make plans but fail to follow through, begin projects but put them aside.

This week is not one of those. I'm active and productive and on the move. Last night I drove to Lebanon Valley College (about forty minutes east of here) to hear a talk by Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. Tomorrow I'm going to Gettysburg College (an hour and a quarter west) to hear poet Galway Kinnell read, and Friday I'm going to Messiah College (about thirty minutes west) to hear novelist Amy Tan.

I've had an interest in Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky since about 1972. She was Marjorie Margolies then and working as a news correspondent for one of the tv networks. She reported several stories on the plight of war orphans in southeast Asia, both those of full Vietnamese parentage as well as biracial children left behind by American soldiers. In 1973 she became the first unmarried US citizen to adopt a foreign child when she brought two Vietnamese girls to live with her.

Margolies-Mezvinsky was thirty-one years old then and making things happen in her own life. I was twenty-six and quite lost. I was in a relationship that was going nowhere and working at a job that was similarly up against its own dead end, and my days had that "stultifying sameness" I described above. 

I wanted change, but unlike this attractive, energetic reporter, I couldn't make it happen. And so I watched her, and wished for that kind of energy, that kind of direction.

Eventually, of course, I did make some changes, although there were a few false starts until I got on the course that led me to the joy I have now. But I've continued to follow the changing fortunes of Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky.

Not long after she adopted her daughters she did a story on Edward Mezvinsky, then a congressman from Iowa. They married, and she found herself at the helm of a sprawling "blended" family -- her adopted daughters, his children (four, I think) from his first marriage, and, eventually, several children (again, four, I think) that they had together. He left Congress and they settled in Montgomery County, an area outside Philadelphia called the "Main Line." (If you were a fan of the tv series thirtysomething you'll remember this as the area where Hope and Michael's house was.)

In 1992 she was persuaded to run for Congress herself, and became the only Democrat from that corner of the state ever elected to anything. Her career in Washington was short-lived, however. She cast the deciding vote that passed Bill Clinton's unpopular budget, and her constituents never forgave her. In recent times she's seen some personal troubles involving bad business decisions, personal bankruptcy, and criminal charges lodged against her husband for investment fraud.

Now she's on the lecture circuit, speaking on issues of women's empowerment and progress. She's at Lebanon Valley for a week, teaching and leading discussions.

Her appearance was sparsely attended. She asked for a show of hands of those who were required to be there, and half the audience responded. She talked about change, about "figuring it out" and following through to make things happen. She made some references to her brief time as a Congresswoman and her unhappy exit from that body. (I remember the photo of Bill Clinton hugging her after the vote. There were tears running down her cheeks. I would remember it sharply a few years later, when Bill Clinton finally lost my devotion.) She took questions at the end, but the audience was not really responsive to her and the session seemed to trail off without much conclusion.

She's written two books, one about her adoption process and one about her stint in Congress, but they're both out of print and not even remaindered copies were available at the back of the room. I would have stayed to talk to her, but since I'm not a political person I wouldn't have much to say to her beyond "I once wanted to be just like you."

Seeing Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, however, was worth the trip. She gave me something long ago, someone to admire and emulate when I was sorely in  need of role models. And she gave me something last night as well -- the reminder that you have to keep on keepin' on, keep on trying to figure it out, no matter how daunting the task.