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.…
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.…
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…
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…
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,…
While coming out as gay man 56 years ago is associated with lots of crap that happened back then and regularly since, coming out has never been the source of the crap itself. Coming out actually launched a world of good for me. At age 16, I got honest with my parents in ways that…
Blue, green, or brown were okay on Thursdays. But not yellow, red, or orange. Those were fruit colors and spoke volumes about you if you wore them on the wrong day. The thing is, when these rules dominated parts of my life in fourth and fifth grade, there was no one to tell how important…
Just this morning I asked a friend to listen to me for a time, uninterrupted. I needed to feel some things that have been rumbling within for weeks. We’ve been friends for about 25 years. We’ve been listening to each other regularly, taking turns as each other’s peer counselor for a decade or more. I…
Creating Community for Everyone 