This morning I finally had the opportunity to remind my neighbor not to smoke when he sits outside his front door because it goes straight up to my living room. He knows the rules well enough; he was just trying to get away with it a bit longer. (I’d been in Portland for several weeks,…
Trailing Clouds of Story Do We Come
Two friends recently received DNA test results that floored them: the stories they’d lived with for fifty-plus years were lies. Their grief increased when they learned everyone else in the family had known all along and kept the secret from them. Both have difficulty now trusting friends and family. What else might they be hiding?…
This IS My Normal
Wheelchair users get such questions by caring people as, “What happened?” or the more blunt, “What’s wrong with you?” When I hear those questions, I look around to see who they’re talking to, and then realize they’re talking to me. “Oh!” I say. “There’s nothing wrong with me. This is my normal.” They blink a…
Warped (II)
Guns—like greed, poverty, pestilence,violence to women and children—form part of the Great Tapestry.The first weapon-threads were embedded so deeplyso early(surely warped, not weft?)ancient weavers remember not their origins.No way to unpick the fine wools now,though present weavers try.With magnifying glass held in hopeful hands,they kneel at the feet of historyand look in vain.Behind the artisans…
But Seriously, Folks
“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto”
One of my fave Twilight Zone episodes is “The Lateness of the Hour.” An inventor and his wife are waited on hand and foot by robots who do everything for them, no backtalk. Their daughter, however, wants to get out and “do something with her life!” Alas, she must stay inside lest she betray the…
Breaking News: Talk Not Cheap
TALK NO LONGER CHEAP by Jennifer Holland, NBN Reporter Necessarily Brief News reported today that the cost of Talk, once so cheap it could be ignored, has risen to the point that an as-yet-unidentified number of persons have lost everything: relationships, businesses, employment, and worse yet, Hope. Experts were focused on world markets and various…
How to Give Peace a Chance
I wondered why my mind could not rest after reading and responding to Jan’s comment on my last blog. At length I realized my mind’s machinations were providing me with the last chapter of the how-to book I’m presently writing (as yet untitled, but The Art of Poverty has been bandied about). Though I’m reluctant…
Bring Them Home
I had an entirely different topic in mind for this blog, a very upbeat look at the New Year, but the shutdown of our government presents such an amazing opportunity to change the world for the better, I could not resist proposing at least one option: Let’s take this chance to bring our children and…
I Can’t See THAT Ever Happening…
I must share a delightful story. My daughter’s hubby applied for a job and they’re waiting for the answer. My daughter woke up and said to herself, “I’m going to see him [the prospective boss] today! I just know it!” She put on makeup and “dressed the part,” as it were, of the charming, intelligent,…
