Image: Steven van Loy Joko Beck said this about teaching and learning: We don’t see that we are all teachers. Everything we do from morning to night is a teaching: the way we speak to someone at lunch, the way we transact our business at the bank, our reaction when the paper we submit is … [read more]
Narrative
Less and less
As I get older, I am increasingly satisfied with simple gifts for birthdays and holidays, and often, none at all. There’s nothing I really need and I’ve no list of “have-to-haves”. This book of Nikki Giovanni’s poems is my holiday gift and it made me happy. I got it for myself. Somehow, I knew just … [read more]
Monsoon
the creatures and me eyes wide, noses to the wind dreaming of cool rain July This time of the year is spectacular where I live at 7,120 feet elevation, 40 degrees north latitude, 105 west, on the east facing slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, just below the Continental Divide. Small arroyos and larger … [read more]
Pray for peace
August 2, 2024 Tuesday, we memorialize the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, and on Friday we remember Nagasaki. Between 129,000 and 226,000 Japanese died, mostly civilians. Imagine not being able to be precise about the deaths of 100,000 people, the population of my town? So much suffering and human loss. What can be said … [read more]
Soothe
Caitriona Balfe, Buddy’s Ma An assassination attempt two days ago. A political convention today where some of the most draconian plans are being seriously considered. A good leader stumbling publicly. Record heat. Wildfires. Though I was born in the final two weeks of the Truman administration, I was a Kennedy kid. That world would last … [read more]
Memory revisited
Image: Alex Dukhanov John died over eight years ago, but listening to REM brought him back to life last week. I leaked like an old faucet hearing his voice. I remember the specific details of Megan’s, Athena’s, and Ian’s birth days vividly, along with foods we ate, midwives’ names and times of day. As well, … [read more]
