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 raised my daughters in fixer upper conditions. They had school clothes, play clothes, ‘Sunday-Go-To-Meeting’ clothes, and ‘Paint Clothes’. Paint clothes were old, ragged or stained clothing in which we could garden, woodwork or paint pictures or houses without a care we might ruin them. I nearly live in paint clothes now. I still get moderately gussied up for gatherings and doctor appointments, but mostly … Continue reading Paint Clothes
My friend Lenny lives by the sea. He and his family dwell in one of San Francisco’s older neighborhoods, where houses were built for working people. Unpretentious homes, packed tightly together, with the Pacific Ocean in their backyards. Clanging streetcars ratchet up and down the avenues, northbound planes yawn overhead. Crashing surf echoes, its rhythm bouncing off succulents and paving stones. Fog sidles. Lenny walks. … Continue reading Count Your Change: Lenny’s Markets
“No, not today. But thank you for the offer.” Incredibly grateful for friends who haven’t given up on me, I am in month 17 of long days of protracted illness. The majority of the 12,200 plus hours I’ve spent guessing whether my biology will cooperate, allowing me a short outing, attendance to a neighborhood gathering, or strength enough to get to the doctor and back. … Continue reading Exile. Chapter 1
My oldest daughter’s current job includes several days of being ‘on call’, days she must keep her phone and herself ready to go in to work. She both dreads and hopes for the call. I can relate. The phone calls I wait for are from doctors. More accurately, I wait to hear from nurses, schedulers or whichever office member drew the short straw. I wait … Continue reading On Call
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
Sticky post
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?
Ha! I’m 60. Here’s what I’ve learned and YOU probably don’t know, if you’re not: That heartache for ‘the one who got away’ will stop stinging someday and become sweet, forgiving love. He or she will visit your dreams, still young, until you understand why the fates did not put/keep you together. You will somehow manage to dig out from the financial mess you made … Continue reading Ha! I’m 60!
What do I believe? My best, oldest friend and spirit guide invited me to ask myself this question. I was seeking her advice, insight, answers to one or more of Life’s typical conundrums. And I could only respond with what I want to believe. Want. Desire. Wish. What transforms intention into faith? For at least fifty of my nearly sixty years on this planet I … Continue reading Fashioning Faith
The InConstant Muse 