Social Class and Knowing

One of the things I do in my work is to serve as a reviewer for scholarly manuscripts that social science researchers submit to academic journals – vying for one of the coveted publication spots so necessary for advancing in higher education professions. Hmmm. Well first, let’s go back and take a look at that sentence.  The one I just wrote and you just read. Its message could easily invoke a yawn. … Read More

What are the Barriers to Social Justice?

  On Friday I had the opportunity to speak briefly with a small group of friends and colleagues about social justice.  It was a time that qualifies for sure as a moment in the story of my life.  And the particular narrative of that time is transition – big transition – so big that I’m not yet prepared to write about it here.  Odd, since this is the place I write and… Read More

Paying Attention to What’s Working

  The other day, I was at the Quest Integrative Health Center in Portland.  I was co-facilitating a discussion on the neurobiology of happiness based on the work of researcher and clinician, Rick Hanson.   I’ve written about Quest Center before in this blog (EX:C blogs November 26, 2012; December 10, 2012) and have to say it’s great to be volunteering my time as part of this monthly neuroscience series. The group gathered… Read More

DIY Fashion Statement

So, one of the features of being human is having a body.  You may have noticed.  Related to that is necessity, both climactic and social, of finding ways to cover, to clothe.  The practical act of clothing keeps people from freezing in winter and can provide a bit of cooling in the heat of summer.  The social act if covering the body may most joyously take on artistry with adornment being a… Read More

Women Claiming Life with ECT

Today a journalist contacted me.  She’s writing a story on women and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and wanted to know two things — what I know of the history of mental health care for women over the past 40 years, and what I know about ECT. The truth is I cannot claim any expertise with regard to ECT.  But I have listened to women in recent years who have considered or experienced the… Read More

Earth Day – a Week after Boston

Earth Day.  Two days after 4/20.  A week since the Boston Marathon Explosion.  Ten days since the Senate voted against background checks for gun purchases. Pedantic as it may sound, if it weren’t for the Earth, none of these other things would have a place to happen. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how it sounds – it’s simply so.  Without Earth, marijuana would not grow, humans would not… Read More

Don’t Rape.

This photo and related article just showed up on Facebook.  The article was about all the ways women should, according to rapist themselves, avoid assault by doing their hair, forgoing attention to cell phones, choosing clothes that are not easily ripped, etc.  Absent in this advice is any mention of high heels. I’ve been unhappy about high heels for as long as I’ve been aware of fashion fluctuations for female feet.  From… Read More

Succession – We’re in Great Hands

This week’s blog is a montage.  My qualification to put these images together here with my ideas about what I’ve seen and experienced of the Student Alliance Project arises only from the generosity with which the young adults of this thriving community organization have informed and befriended me as an ally. Last night I attended a celebration.  There were hundreds of people in a room that barely held them, sitting at circular… Read More

Transition – when change seems like all there is

So this is a photo of transition.  Transition from winter to spring, from dawn to day and, as my photographer friends have taught me, this brief period when the angle of the sun rays relative to the surface of our planet is just so is also a transition they call sweet light.  So here you have it.  Daffodils just past dawn in sweet light on a day in my life when change is… Read More

Ready to Learn

Today I was a peripheral part of a discussion on schools – specifically that now familiar notion applied to preschool and kindergarten aged children, “readiness to learn.”  Hmmm. Ever since G.W. Bush announced the launch of “No Child Left Behind,” with its guarantee of advancing the fiscal security of the standardized test industry nationwide – ever since he said as part of that initiative that “every child will come to school ready… Read More