CALM DOWN

Maybe I should keep it to myself. But no, that would not do. I read most of it aloud to Gary. Then I composed an email, but kept adding to the Bcc. So here. Here it is. It's unlikely that any (none?) of my family will read it, but sending it as a link in …

BLUE DOT

A friend of mine, someone I know only through our mutual blog posts and a handful of emails, the exchanges of notebooks and weaving... lives in a deeply red community of a deeply red southern state, the one blue dot in a red sea. She has found herself in situations where people say what seem …

ROSE CITY

for Ruth It's an oriental poppy, not a rose, and on the coast, not in Portland. Roses, choosing a home, The Flight of the Mind, and walking, in no particular order. I had been thinking about my last face-to-face conversation with Ruth Gundle, who has lived in Portland for many years, is deeply involved in …

ANNIVERSARY

Next month is our 48th wedding anniversary, but today is the 50th anniversary of living together. I announced our intention to my mother via a letter sent from Kansas where I was traveling with my step-grandmother. (It was cowardly. While I was old enough to move in with Gary, I was too young to tell …

HERO

In her essay, "We Don't Need Another Hero," Roxane Gay quarrels with labeling Cassidy Hutchinson a hero for her recent testimony: "It took courage, I suppose, for Hutchinson to do the right thing. I can imagine she was facing a lot of political pressure, and perhaps even danger for coming forward to share what she …

WORTH MENTIONING

Some things are worth mentioning: the freedom to marry the person you love, food, clean air, water in streams, the compassion of people you know and also of the people you do not know. Children, uncles and aunts or third and fourth cousins, the devotion of grandparents, the expectation that if I fall someone will …

FOOLED

We could say we are looking for sea glass, but we never do. We could say we are looking for agates, which is also true, but what Gary tells people is: "Rocks." This is also true, though not completely true. This posting concerns gathering treasure from the beach, reviewing promises and lies, and a fictional …

LAND LINE

No one calls us. No. That's inaccurate. We have friends in Canada who call sometimes to touch base and one of our sons often calls us during his breaks working from home, especially while he is on a walk. Our younger son got us each a cell phone and pays our new phone bill, so …

PREVENTABLE

On May 25, 1911, a catastrophic event changed public opinion forever. A factory building in Manhattan caught fire but all exits, including firedoors and stairs had been locked or chained shut. Workers (mostly women) could not escape the building. In desperation, 62 people died when they fell or jumped from windows to escape the flames …

OutHorse

https://player.vimeo.com/video/710287348?h=d04a56aad2 The best advice my mother ever gave, and these were words she said to me hundreds of times: Think how the other person feels. She meant to help me be a kind person. As a child I went to Unitarian Sunday school. Later I attended worship at many churches and temples and houses of …