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Just when I vow to step back, take a deep breath, for a few hours view politics from afar, knowing (and not exactly forgetting) the horrors of so many lives: the refugees and other homeless humans, those mired in death and starvation in countless deadly military/gang/thug actions around the world—it gets personal in various ways. For starters, personally terrifying in the way fascism, communism, capitalism, all creep up and into, if not… Read More
For now, each of my posts will be two-parters, divided between “Watching the World” (politics/history-in Words) and “Living the World” (travel, family/friends-mostly in Pictures). Sometimes the juxtaposition will be jarring. This post for instance: ‘Who’s a Nazi’, followed by a road trip to Colorado! My only explanation for incorporating the darkest of topics and one of my favorite pastimes into the same blog post is that is exactly how life splits now…. Read More
We are the lucky ones. How often do you hear old people say that? But hey, it’s all in the timing, isn’t it? We had the good fortune to live our adult lives, mostly to completion, in a relatively peaceful and prosperous part of the world. Of course, if we were members of the favored race and favored gender in these parts, we were even luckier, but that’s another less positive story…. Read More
“Mankind surely does not represent an evolution toward a better or stronger or higher level, as progress is now understood.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (Ponder this a moment…) Fifteen days from now. Right? Fifteen. Surely, we are not approaching the most momentous act of my lifetime. I was born six months before the start of WW2, so the Allies’ (the good guys back in the day: UK, US, Soviet Union, and, usually included, China)… Read More
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.”– Henry David Thoreau In the last post I gushed about An Unfinished Love Story and felt quite enthusiastic about the continued sharing of my political-origins story. Upon a few days’ reflection, while my admiration for Goodwin’s book has not lessened—I realize my enthusiasm for the words (“Ask not….”)… Read More
No one could tell the story of the 60s better than Doris Kearns Goodwin, especially as seen through her and husband Richard Goodwin’s lived experiences, vivid memories, box after box of words and picture artifacts, and so much love, passion, and intelligence for and with each other and their friends and associates—key players all, in a time and in places never to be forgotten. And all here in An Unfinished Love Story:… Read More
Voting makes me feel good, as though I’m part of something meaningful, part of a community of like-minded humans; as though I’m grown-up and responsible and informed. Last week I voted. It felt good—for an hour or two. I’ve been thinking about me and politics a lot lately. Probably because my treadmill time at the gym has been consumed with the audiobook of An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the… Read More
I’m cheating…this post was written in 2020 but it feels more 2019-like. Except for including Scott’s 60th birthday preview…and he would vehemently deny being a year older than his already advanced age. What is wrong with me…cannot seem to finish 2019…tonight I must. A few words, a few photos and 2019 will truly go away. Fini. Exhausted. Done and Dusted. All that. My family and friends and work are fine. Except for… Read More
Yet one more comment on the election…as though we need more. I felt compelled…what a fearful time. Maybe the news will be good. Please let the news be good. Please… “Be afraid, be very afraid,” said a character in the horror film, “The Fly.” Which is how I am feeling these pre-election days, and pretty much how I’ve been feeling since the night of November 8, 2016. It’s not just about the… Read More