I do believe in human goodness, intelligence, generosity, connectedness, enthusiasm, and beauty. There are lots of things, however, that I don’t believe in, like luck, the Loch Ness Monster, and numerology. In numerology, for example, seven is powerful and mystical and represents intuition, good luck, spiritual growth, and completeness. If numerology is to be believed, this…
Aging / Appreciation / Commitment / Decisions / HIV/AIDS / How I roll / Love / Personal History / Wonder
Last fall, I started a class in neon glass at Milwaukee Makerspace. Our instructor Brett took only a few minutes to do brief introductions to one another and his co-instructor, Rosie, before he led us into a meeting room to view a presentation on neon. He didn’t tell us how we would need to work.…
In early-February, I stopped at my local public library to see if there was a copy of Nothing Personal by Richard Avedon and James Baldwin available. There I learned that a single copy was in the stacks of the Central Library, but only for viewing on site. A week later, I went with my buddy…
He was thin – too thin – for any weather, but on the morning of New Year’s Eve Day, he shook under a Red Cross blanket, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, soggy socks, his feet pushed into yellow slides so small that the last three inches of his feet hung behind their soles. He had…
From a recent podcast, I learned about a phenomenon known as whalefall. When a large whale dies and sinks to the depths of the ocean – rather than being beached, becoming a terrible event to witness and worry over – the falls, or carcasses, quietly provide immediate, intermediate, and long-term benefits to an entire ecosystem.…
Housing insecurity, racism, poverty, the healthy development of young people, social identities, the building of community, our environment – these have all played parts in shaping who I am at 75. I have not just studied these, but I have contributed, protested, taught, and labored to address them. But my relationship to war has lately…
In 1967 or 1968, I started to become aware of the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolph Dreikurs, theory that would influence my work for decades to come. I learned about Parent Effectiveness Training and Teacher Effectiveness Training in small classrooms in Holton, Garland, Mitchell, and Pearse Halls. One of these classes positioned Adlerian theory…
Last week I took a friend and colleague to see a teen program in Chicago. Describing After School Matters as a teen program is a bit like calling Saarinen a builder or Lake Michigan a pond. There are 10,000 Chicago teens in programs this summer, with more participating after school during the fall and spring…
First, I must clarify that ageing does NOT suck. So, when I hear people use expressions like, “Ageing sucks, but it’s better than the alternative,” I bristle. Second, death is not a failure of the dead nor is it some sort of awful alternative to be avoided at all costs. I cannot think of these…
That’s how I respond to the notion of a bucket list for me. Some friends and many others whom I know have developed these lists of experiences that want to have before they die. People closest to me know that I like doing stuff, going places, meeting people, having a big life. But I know…
Fred Sanford’s Big One was a feigned heart attack pulled out whenever he needed a break from his most recent poor choice. He’d call on his late wife, Elizabeth, and let her know he was going to join her. Whether he was conning Lena Horn or getting his son to stay close by, Fred (Redd…
Part of my appreciation of the world is born in his encouragement of me to “see;” in mine of him, to “look.”
One would have to know more about my mind and my habits to understand my complex connection to Black History Month. First, my mind. Among my most vivid early school memories comes one from kindergarten. Although one day on the way home from school I was hit by a car, my clearest recollection from that…
In 2000, I argued that condensing our understanding of voting patterns into two teams, red or blue, was a big mistake. After watching election results that year, I worried aloud that reductionist approaches would only further the political schism in the U.S. Our electoral decisions, after all, are not football scores. I recall asking you…
A year like no other. So far out there. Wonder if we’ll ever get back to normal. It has been an amazing year, for sure. Emily, Mitchell, Erich, Zen, Laya, Jennifer, Jay, Liz, Erica, and Ira are all progressing in school. We met when they were undergrads,…
Creating Community for Everyone 