The stage and film musical satire Bye, Bye, Birdie contains a great song,” Kids.” If you are not familiar with the song, find and listen to it. You’ll get my point fast. Many of my contemporaries and several of my elders wonder if today’s kids are worth a hoot. The numerous seeming differences in Baby Boomer and Millennial youth generate responses from bemusement to outright … Continue reading What’s the Matter with Kids Today?
I used to be a news junkie. The accompanying commentary interested and informed me. But, I’m done. Between journalistic political opinions and conjecture and minute-to-minute coverage of ‘blood on the streets,’ I can’t bear to tune in anymore. What am I missing? That another black male was needlessly killed by police officers? That another movie theatre, classroom, church or nightclub massacre ‘broke out’? I’m fed … Continue reading Gunning Down America
I have many younger friends who are raising kids or considering it. Allow my perspective to join the other unsolicited advice with which you are bombarded. First and foremost, adding a new life to this world automatically commits you to a lifelong relationship of self-education, adjustment, sacrifice and growth. If you are not up for it, don’t do it. Get a puppy, a goldfish, a … Continue reading Raising Kids: Unsolicited Advice
When answering honestly, most couples managing to ‘last’ will admit there was a separation, when one partner had simply had enough of waiting for and wanting operational changes that the other wouldn’t help make happen. In my experience, it’s usually the woman who finally has to put her foot down, shove her partner out, or pack up and go. The men I know are baffled. … Continue reading Becoming a Husband
I’m prone to forgetfulness. I can easily forget that I’ve already seen a given movie or television show, taken my thrice daily medications, and what day it is. Where I’ve left my handbook, shoes, keys, mail, garden clippers, and the dog’s leash are just as likely to slip my mind. They stay slipped, until I search all possible locations. My lapses in memory grew serious … Continue reading Forgetting Myself
May’s knees are bone-on-bone. Each step is agony. Carl just learned his unabated fatigue is rooted in metastasized cancer. Levon‘s eyesight is going, throwing off his balance. Denny just learned she has a lethal heart condition. My colitis rages. Medications, treatments, tests. We are cheerful people, granted some nascent grace with which to face each new day, even when the day greets us with unavoidable … Continue reading May’s Knees are Bone: Wednesday Wanderers
I’ve torn up my three-year-old garden. Still it offers beauty. Bold blue delphinium are pushing five-foot stalks upward. At their feet, alyssum pours itself into strawberry plants that pose tiny white flowers and green berries waiting for a break in our cloud cover. Canna unfurl their blood-red leaves. Sedum crawls between the slim trunks of rhododendron bursting with pinks and purples. My home is on … Continue reading Garden News: May at Lawrence and Adams
I have to garden. For me gardening is elemental. It’s about immersing myself in the dirt, air, and phenomena of nature. I read about plants, compost, insects. But that’s not the real learning my garden yields. My garden is a classroom about all life, an exhibition on cycles of inception to decay to rebirth, a primer on behaviors and adaptations, a refuge of revelation. Whatever … Continue reading Gardening
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Blow it off? Wait until you’re not so busy? Too confusing? It’s all rigged anyway? Whoa, kiddo. No! You need to vote! Incredibly lucky to be a citizen of a democratic republic, you cannot take time off from being an American. Popular claims that the ‘American Dream’ is about owning a home or rising in your job is rubbish. The American Dream is, at its … Continue reading Oh, Teacup, How do you Vote?
Oh, Teacup, Yes, it can be hard being an adult. And, no, I cannot do it for you. But I can offer some ‘sage’ guidance. First, accept you are a grown up despite your tender years and reticence. There are literally millions of people exactly your age. In some cultures, and in prior times, you’d be considered nearly ancient. Until you are an old, old … Continue reading Oh, Teacup, You are Grown
The InConstant Muse 