Clare Consultation, LLCPosted on October 28, 2012 by Mary Clare
Matters of Spirit before the Election — and a second podcast —
Last night there were fireworks in the rain for the last game of the season for the Portland Timbers — our professional soccer team. The season ended with a tie between the Timbers and the San Jose Earthquakes. I wasn’t at the game. And, true confession, I didn’t know about it. But the sound was enormous for 20 minutes or more. My imagination ran the gammut, but I remembered my friend Dia… Read More
Posted on October 24, 2012 by Mary Clare
In the run up to the election — An ANTIDOTE
Another post so soon??? YES! Here’s an antidote to all the contention and polemic flying around the airwaves and unfortunately, too easily eddying in our own ruminations. We still have over a week before the election. During that time it’s only vastly possible that the theater of opposition will amp up. The essential subtext of all the contention is that we the people not only should but do dislike, disrespect and fear… Read More
Posted on October 21, 2012 by Mary Clare
How to Listen to Presidential Candidates
My work is in a graduate school. I am responsible for helping prepare people to be educators, mental health professionals and community leaders. We need them, so I give my very best to enabling their brilliance and their good hearts. One of the questions I often ask my students is, “What do you want?” I sometimes have them write for a while – a good while – in answer to this question. … Read More
Posted on September 24, 2012 by Mary Clare
“47%” Cuts Lots of Ways
I saw my highschool friend Tim Taylor at a reunion a few years ago. Last time we’d spoken we were both 15 year olds. When we chatted this time, it was September in Kerrville, TX – homecoming weekend. The world class heat of the Texas summer had softened so we could stand around outside catching up on where the decades had taken those fresh-faced teens who will forever populate the halls of… Read More
Posted on September 10, 2012 by Mary Clare
Post National Conventions – the Anniversary Celebration of a Brain Tumor
This morning a friend in Omaha told me about Sam, a friend of his who was off for ten days on a third anniversary trip to the particular beauty of the Colorado Rockies around Estes Park. My friend has spoken of Sam before, describing him as a notably successful businessman who’s built a thriving company that supplies materials for building or renovating homes. Sam’s success, though, is lately not enough to bring… Read More
Posted on August 27, 2012 by Mary Clare
The Hope in Opposition
NOTE: An opposition in public discourse occurs when opinions on a given matter appear sharply polarized. E.g., global warming is a problem: there’s no global warming. From one view, opposition makes for intractability. From another it makes for opportunity. Listening and speaking across difference – the willingness and skill for that – makes the difference. A few trending Oppositions in admitted editorial rendering (i.e., I like all of us am biased by… Read More
Posted on August 12, 2012 by Mary Clare
Election Year Politics – Hold on to your Limbic System!
If there were a word to sum up the trouble with our elections and the leaders they bring us, what would it be? Thinking back on the 100 Voices I listened to in 2009, Americans around the country offered words like immature, disappointing, ridiculous, greedy, irrelevant. Ed Kemp, III in Jackson, MS said “useless.” Then he elaborated. “Senators and congressmen ought to all be farmers. They get up in the morning. They… Read More
Posted on July 29, 2012 by Mary Clare
Mary Says, Mitt Says
My 19-year-old niece Mary is in Israel. So is Mitt Romney. Mary arrived almost 4 weeks ago to assist with rebuilding homes of Palestinian people that have been destroyed in the areas of the country historically populated by Palestinians now being displaced. Many of those lands are occupied by Jewish settlers. These are complicated issues from the standpoint of local, national and international politics. They are less complicated but more urgent and… Read More