Clare Consultation, LLCEgypt, Chicago and the Year of the Rabbit
Today is the second full day of the Chinese New Year. We leave the year of the White Tiger to enter the Year of the Golden Rabbit. I am not Chinese, but my Chinese-American friends tell me the rabbit symbolizes graciousness, kindness and a sensitivity to beauty. They say Chinese astrology predicts this is to be year of peace and collaboration. Associated with the beginning of the lunar calendar, the festivities of… Read More
Seeing Privilege
It’s going to take a while. I don’t want to speak for blacks, but from my perspective being a black man with what I have observed in my lifetime, I will feel as though I’m going to be shortchanged because of the history behind us. I will feel that until I see some definite improvement. If they tell you that you can be equal, but you never make any gains, you’re going… Read More
Tucson, 9/11 and a Publication Date (!)
It’s happening! The EX:Change project’s interviews from early 2009 are going into a book. The tentative title – You Say Change, We Say…. And Loud Mouth (http://www.loudmouthpress.org/) is the perfect publisher – a nonprofit in Brooklyn devoted to issues of social importance. Here’s one thing they say about themselves. “Our projects offer an innovative, creative and artistic perspective on important topics that concern the entire human family.” Cool, huh? Fortunately, the… Read More
Procrastination and a Nation’s Hostility Habit: When a Congresswoman has Been Shot in the Head
It is shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon in the Starbucks on 28th and E. Burnside in Portland, Oregon. It’s Adam’s last day as a barista here. He’s off for a full-time gig in a fusion restaurant downtown. My friend Doug just walked by and came in for a chat. He’s a bartender who, for the first time in two decades, didn’t have to work New Year’s Eve. “Nothing more renewing than… Read More
Taxis, TSA & the Imprecision of Communication
Tuesday night I was in a Taxi in San Francisco. My companion and I sat in the back seat comfortable after another in a two-day series of divine dining experiences. Earlier in the evening we had walked downtown sidewalks under a sky defined by elegant angles of glass and steel reaching to frame the gibbous moon and Venus where they glittered in their particular harmony. We were looking for the Mexican fusion… 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