Reading in our culture has become so attenuated that all reading is now considered “good.” Children are admonished to read in general, as if all books are equal, but a brain bloated with truisms and clichés, with formulaic stories and simple answers to badly asked questions is hardly what we should aspire to. For the…
The worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you – – Claudia Rankine, Citizen, An American Lyric Several times this week, I heard friends and colleagues say that I looked calm and content. One added: “You seem really in the moment.” Given that I am getting through a bout of bronchitis, I…
Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. At the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest and most marginalized people…
This February marked the 50th anniversary of my coming out as a gay man. I was 16 at the time. Stonewall was several years away. The word gay was not in common use. At 16, there was not much of a community in which to be welcomed. I didn’t so much exit a closet as…
A noiseless patient spider, I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. – Walt Whitman This poem gives me pause. When did I learn to stop or slow my casting…
Lover alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. – >William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 Communities share an identity of sorts. This identity is affected by intentions, beliefs, resources, preferences, and risks. Community identity is also affected by its stickiness, by its adhesion. We sometimes call…
I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That’s all that I remember. – Countée Cullen (1903-1946), Incident This final stanza of Incident by Countée Cullen is remarkable on its own and the culmination of an outstanding poetic story told in 12 lines. Ever since I…
How ready are we to address the sources of racism, acknowledge the effects of racism, and change both for good? This past weekend, my friend Rudy laid out the history of race and racism is simple and elegant terms. He calmly explained the origins of the construct of race in the slicing and dicing that…
The person you long for – the answer to your prayers – is probably right in front of you. He just doesn’t look like the man of your dreams. It is time to throw away your list of must-haves. – Paul Mandracchia My late husband gave this sage advice to many people of all sexual…
We are already quite good at creating many things we want in our lives, but have we achieved the diversity of friends and associates that we want? I don’t think so. What stands in our way? There is nothing wrong with comfort and contentment. In fact, I am a fan of both. There is a…
Creating Community for Everyone 