Sometimes I turn to internet sources for news updates. Huffington Post, NYT, stories posted to facebook, local papers’ websites for learning about where I am along the road. Often there are stories with photos of crowd scenes. Some are international, but I’m thinking today of domestic stories – Occupy, Tea Party, vigils, protests on the National Mall or at statehouses across the country. In the case of crowd photos from the U.S.,… Read More
Today is the third above 70 degrees in Wisconsin. Locals clearly love it. So do I. And … really? 70’s in late winter here in a U.S. state that shares a rather large lake (Superior) with the Canadian state of Ontario? Maybe it’s the Texan in me who can’t imagine anyplace else acting in total defiance of the seasons. Maybe it’s my vigilant interest in our reading the trends to avert calamitous… Read More
A year ago, I spoke with Susan Stout (Voice 075), a PhD forester with primary oversight of significant research in the forests of the Allegheny of western Pennsylvania. Then, yesterday I marched with a small group of people who gathered in the small downtown area of Whitewater, WI. These things fit together. Almost 9000 miles down the road, I’m taking a break to visit here in Whitewater for the month. This is… Read More
I drove into Cincinnati from Manhattan. How many times will I be able to say that? Not many. And it was no minor feat. I’m guessing this is not the least bit surprising to any of you. Still, we say these things out loud to one another – partly as a request for validation – a “wow” that fits with the relative enormity of the accomplishment. The vast majority of Americans don’t… Read More
It happens relatively rarely in a lifetime, this date that adjusts for the inaccuracies in our calendar. I can’t help but take comfort in the reminder that human ingenuity requires human fallibility. Dine (Navajo) weavers, Yakama beadworkers, Appalachian quilters sometimes become so good at their crafts that they purposefully place mistakes in their work. It’s an act of humility, recognition that nothing humanly constructed can be perfect. Most of us don’t need… Read More
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
I’ve just spent the past three days crossing the Southern tier states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama into Georgia. I’ve spent precious time with relatives – kin by birth and kin by choice and community. Along the slow roll of land falling toward and then rising up from the Mississippi River’s reliable flow I found story after story, learning after learning. In the three years since I last drove these Southern highways… Read More
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
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
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
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