The Rib That Protects the Heart
For centuries, one small detail from the book of Genesis has carried an outsized weight. Eve, the story goes, was formed from one of Adam’s ribs, and that detail has been used again and again to argue that women are secondary, an afterthought fashioned from something that already existed, rather than a full creation in […]
The Pattern That Repeats
Read enough history and a pattern begins to surface, one that has nothing to do with the century, the country, or the faith involved. A woman speaks with authority, and she becomes dangerous. A woman leads, and she becomes unnatural. A woman refuses to be silent, and she becomes immoral. The names change. The centuries […]
Why Twelve Women, Why Now
Ribs of an Old Tree did not begin as a book. It began as a question, asked quietly at a kitchen table over old photographs and county records: where did we actually come from. That question turned into twelve years of genealogical work. Beverly Barnes McKeever traced her family line back through more than eighteen […]
