My friend, Vera, tells me she is not an environmentalist. Not because she debunks climate change or hates polar bears.

Vera would qualify for “environmentalist” if I were the one doing the judging. Vera has been recycling for the past 35 years, long before anyone else was doing it. She is currently building a tiny house on wheels (THOW) using her own designs and labor.  Sixty-percent of the interior of her tiny house is repurposed materials, including old drawers that will become stairs. She plans to use her “Silver Bullet” to teach others how to downsize into a tiny “houseprint.”

Despite these qualifications for “environmentalist” she prefers a more functional self-definition. She calls herself “a resilient human being striving for cultural and social awareness.”

She is an authority on resilience, having survived three bouts of cancer, two divorces, making a fortune and losing it, twice, physical beatings and a near drowning. A list that will either kill you or make you strong.

Within her history is another story about the injustices of labeling. Maybe this is why she shuns them.

Vera is now in her sixties. A couple of years ago she went into “retirement” from the regular nine-to five routine, partially because she couldn’t find a suitable job during the Great Recession. She has been CFO of a large electrical firm, owner of several art galleries, a fundraiser for breast cancer, an entrepreneur, consultant, university professor, lecturer. She has degrees in Sustainability from Presidio University, an MFA from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a BA from Tufts University. Does this sound like someone who is not employable???

According to Vera, her biggest liability in the real job market was her age and gender. She was told that she was qualified, even over-qualified for posts she applied for. But due to her age and gender she was deemed unable to lead the work force of thirty-somethings who would not like taking direction from a woman her age. HURRUMPH!

Let’s save the piping plovers and leave ‘extinction’ for some old ideas.