Clare Consultation, LLCPosted on March 12, 2012 by Mary Clare
MC & EX:Change on Public Broadcasting this Wednesday
www.wpr.org Mar 14 ~ 5:00-6:00p.m. CDT MC ~on~AT ISSUE w/ Ben Merens … The EX:Change project and 100 VOICES – AMERICANS TALK ABOUT CHANGE debut on an hour-long public radio show this week. This is exciting, for sure! An hour call-in for chatting about listening across difference. The Wisconsin Public Broadcasting range includes Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Michigan and western Minnesota. And Ben Merens – an exceptional soul entirely devoted professionally and personally… Read More
Posted on February 22, 2012 by Mary Clare
Georgians in the Radical Act of Listening
I want to tell you about the last three groups to hear about 100 VOICES – AMERICANS TALK ABOUT CHANGE. Night before last in a Decatur, GA neighborhood, about 20 women who know each other from the Presbyterian church they all attend gathered the way they do every month. They come for dinner, community and inquiry at the home of Kent Leslie author and scholar. Most of the women are in their 60’s… Read More
Posted on February 3, 2012 by Mary Clare
Post-Florida-Primary Points of Note
Well today there’s the Susan G. Komen flip flop on their relationship with Planned Parenthood, there’s the unreliability in signs of economic recovery and there’s the hideous violence occurring in Syria and on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. No doubt, the pundits who fancy themselves either political or entertainment, could be and are spinning these stories to fit their agendas. Last night I finally got off the road with the promise… Read More
Posted on January 30, 2012 by Mary Clare
Better Than You Believe
Better than you believe; stronger than you seem. Carol Ackerman “What we know is that the more people affiliate with other people, the more their sources of positive experiences and possibilities for energizing and purposeful activity in the world.” This is my best shot at something my mentor, Jane Conoley said to me yesterday morning. We were sitting in her living room, the Sunday morning light breathing itself across the bamboo floors,… Read More
Posted on January 26, 2012 by Mary Clare
SC to FLA – Why Read the 100 VOICES Blogs on the Primaries??
It looked like a done deal to lots of folks who are paid to make authoritative calls on such things. Chances were slim, they said a week ago, that Gingrich, Perry or Santorum could stage a comeback in the South Carolina primary that took place last Saturday. It’s heard of, but none of those campaigns appeared anywhere near as strong as Romney’s given the current playing field with its corporations=people, money=free speech rulebook. Enter… Read More
Posted on January 23, 2012 by Mary Clare
Change in the Year of the Dragon – Checking in from SFO
Gong Hey Fat Choy! A most auspicious New Year to each and all. I just saw the link to an International Business Times article on my friend Valerie’s facebook page. She put this quote from the article in her post, “The Dragon is larger than life and its appearance means that big things are to come.” Then she wrote, “I can get into that! :)” Me, too! So here I am 500 miles down… Read More
Posted on January 21, 2012 by Mary Clare
On the Road Again – AKA EX:Change Round II
Three years ago today, I began the EX:Change project. Our new president had been inaugurated the day before and January 21 was the first of my 100 days for learning from everyday U.S. citizens what they meant when they said the word, change. My goal was to interview 100 people in 100 days and one result was the publication of the book 100 VOICES – AMERICANS TALK ABOUT CHANGE. Now it’s three… Read More
Posted on January 16, 2012 by Mary Clare
Sam @ Starbucks
Sam is a barista at the Starbucks where I did a good number of the initial interviews. I’m actually sitting here right now. I came to know of Sam from voice 006, Leila Bowen, who was the manager here during that time. She hired Sam just before she left for another position. I remember her saying really complimentary things about him – how she thought he was management material. Today I told… Read More
Posted on January 14, 2012 by Mary Clare
What am I Doing Here? OCCUPYING CHANGE.
Here we are. In crisis. Together. The truth of the oft cited Chinese logograph for crisis is that it holds two characters, one connoting danger and the other signifying a point of uncertainty, a critical moment, a point of profound and unsettling change. This is vastly more realistic than the more New Age rendition that misattributes the notion of opportunity to the second character. We are in crisis. These years are more… Read More
Posted on December 24, 2011 by Mary Clare
Christmas Eve Roses from Art
Art Garcia holds one of many distinctions as Voice #2 in 100 VOICES — AMERICANS TALK ABOUT CHANGE. Today I got a text message: “Check your front porch.” Then a second message followed “: )” — Both were from Art. I wasn’t home at the time, so I called David, my world’s best ever next door neighbor and asked if he’d go see what Art had left. “It’s flowers,” David said…. Read More