That Area Between Black and White
Life is short. Sure it’s trite, but it’s also true. We’re reminded so often because grasping this is vital to our decision-making in day-to-day life. I lost my friend in Florida. I have other important friends, people I love dearly, but she was special, and she was one of my few tethers to the world. …
Vote like a black woman. I’ve been seeing this all over social media, and it’s good advice, sounds simple, but there is a lot of information included in those five words about their choices and motivations. I was chugging right along on these two parts of the post, eager to talk about the Democratic Party, …
(This is part one of two. . .) For the first three or so decades of my life I learned to think the way I was taught in the midwest, to view voting day, if I bothered to show, as choosing between the “lesser of two evils.” As a 50-something now, I look back on …
We are poisoning ourselves, and we have been for as long as I can remember. It’s slow, so slow we don’t really notice until someone points out how ugly and selfish the the toxin has made us, how it’s seeped into our minds and souls, claiming our compassion and empathy, our humanity. I’m not talking …
I tend to be attracted to people who don’t hate me, who don’t wish ill for me or for my friends and family. I’m not the only one. People are funny like that. I also tend to gravitate toward people who have compassion, empathy, people who can express themselves in a way I can understand …
Before we get any further in: SPOILER ALERT. If you have not seen the new Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, then move along; these are not the thoughts you’re looking for. I do hope you’ll come back once you have seen the movie. You know I’m a Star Wars fan, already biased, but it …
Change is inevitable. The pendulum effect holds that trends in culture, politics, etc., tend to swing back and forth between opposite extremes. Still, moving forward doesn’t happen by accident. People resist change even if it will eventually be good for them. Change can be hard, but progress is made up of steps forward as we learn …
Weird things happen when you get old. Priorities change. Events come into focus. Life is like putting together a puzzle with no picture to guide you. There will come a point when you start to see what it’s probably going to look like if you ever finish it. There is still a lot of trial …
A frightening thing happened in the United States last week: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that ESPN should fire Jemele Hill, a sportscaster, because she tweeted that the president is a white supremacist. Then Sanders said in her own defense, “I’m not the one making outrageous comments” as if reminding people that the …
For a country that brags about how strong and great we are we sure are a bunch of weenies. We’ve fought in wars, members of our military are still dying overseas and most of us don’t even really know why. We’ve gotten through epidemics. None of us remember it now, but we’ve fought a civil …