The Paradox of Thrift

My grandparents survived the Great Depression.  My parents were born into the close of that time, but like any time of stress linked with austerity, the aftermath of that economic trauma was evident in newly and deeply established habits of caution. My farming grandmother could make anything out of anything, or so it seemed to me.  She made quilts from squares of rag scraps stuffed with old nylon hosiery (among other softish… Read More

On Coming Full Circle

On a walk through Laurelhurst Park, I run into … well, first the bouncy affectionate force field of a German Shepherd named Roman and then the woman at the other end of his substantial chain leash, my friend Raquel. “Hi!” we both call out at the same time, finally able to identify one another across the giddy animation of 75 pounds of smiling, jumping, licking canine.  “Roman!”  Raquel’s voice is stern as… Read More

Common Courtesy

It’s sunny in Portland OR and already in the 60’s at 12:24 p.m. on Saturday.  People are out everywhere and I’m walking west, nearing the center of the Steel Bridge, one of the ten bridges spanning the Willamette River and operated by the Port of Portland.  The water level is very high – highest since the flood of 1996.  As I walk onto the Steel Bridge, I’m guessing the bridge operators are… Read More

“I’m not done yet.”

My friend Murry is in a protracted conversation with esophageal cancer.  He knows all too well that his condition didn’t come from nowhere. The president spoke yesterday to matters in the Middle East – to the changes signified with the public uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.  He spoke to Israel and Palestine– to that protracted conversation.  We all know that none of that came from nowhere. Today I took a photo of… Read More

Looking under the Hood — AKA Whiplash in Wisconsin

In American elections the principle of democracy known as majority rule is in play even if the majority doesn’t bother to vote.  This, naturally, is reflected in our elected officials.  Right?  Ask Wisconsin. Elections are about change.  They can be about democracy. Then there’s the notion of EX:Change.  It’s the idea I’ve been so captivated by since the 2008 presidential election and the electrifying cross-partisan enthusiasm for the word change. When change… Read More

Just Listen

Yesterday I came home, grabbed the blue nylon bag I use for light trips to the grocery store, and took off in search of … well … Rice Dream.  Really – borderline hippie; soy, dairy and gluten free.  It’s my latest answer to the love song of my sweetest tooth. To walk to the grocery store, I take the back steps and follow the sidewalk around to the front of the house. … Read More

Stories on the Night After the Election

Jarred the grocery store guy told me a story last night. We were talking about his work – he’s something of a mid management type with responsibility for ensuring the identification and obstruction of shop lifters.  “Yeah.  I can recognize them because I’ve been there.  I wasn’t there long and I’m not proud of it, but that’s a big part of how I know them when I see them.” Jarred is in… Read More

When our Greatest Hope is Boring

There is a quickening in human consciousness.  Yep, right here in and among the species of which readers, bloggers, warriors and prophets are a part.  I saw this quickening on the road and still see it daily.  I heard it in American voices across the 100 days of the EX:Change interviews and daily I continue hearing it. A quickening is an acceleration, a vitalizing, a coming or returning to life.  Ours is… Read More

Working Change

“We have an amazing work ethic in this country. We’re not all working in the same direction, and that’s normal to some point.  You’re not supposed to always be working in harmony, but I hope the work ethic and the sense of shared humanity in that continue.” Lena This morning in the New York Times, Paul Krugman, an esteemed if controversial economist, forecast again the third Great Depression for the U.S. economy… Read More

Oil Spills, Financial Crises and the EX:Change Voices Who Will Inherit It All

This morning I had tea in a coffee shop in the Oakhurst neighborhood of Decatur, GA.  Yep, back in Georgia.  In fact, as I type, I’m sitting in front of the courthouse in the photo atop the February 27, 2009 blog entry from the EX:Change Road Trip (EX:C blog, The Heart of Dixie).  Family lives here.  I’m visiting.  Thus tea in Oakhurst. I sat at the table with a grandmother, two moms… Read More