In 1982 I ended a relationship with a wonderful man who remains a dear friend still. We are both good guys and generous. I was just not able at the time to understand and address the chasm created by our class differences. Because I had been raised poor and working class, his kind politeness and…
In the early-1980s, baby boomers were looking good. At 35, we were running, pumping iron, and discovering organic. We were taking over in so many ways. Unlike the 1950s and 1960s, when we were crowding into overflow barracks in beyond-capacity schools, in our 30’s we were getting into supervisory roles and management positions that surpassed…
The day after I went to a Patti LaBelle performance last month, I woke with an acute awareness of having lost something. The concert itself was a thing of joy for us die-hard Patti fans. Ms. LaBelle brought it for over 90 minutes. There were people in the audience of roughly 3,000 who had seen…
In what can perhaps be most kindly described as a bizarre television comedy, Strangers with Candy, Amy Sedaris plays Jerri Blank, a 46-year old ex-junkie who returns to high school. In one of the many hilarious episodes, two of her male teachers each has a sore on his lip. The ongoing gag line is, “It’s…
Chip Berlet and Frederick Clarkson have argued that “It would be nice if conservative White evangelicals called off the Culture Wars that they started and continue to aggressively pursue. It would be even nicer if liberal (and even some progressive) pundits stopped prematurely announcing the end of the Culture Wars and the demise of the…
The storytelling self is a social self, who declares and shapes important relationships through the mediating power of words. Thus, in sharing stories, we have the potential for forging new relationships, including local, classroom “cultures” in which individuals are interconnected and new “we’s” formed. – Dyson, A. H., & Genishi, C. (1994). The need for…
When I was in my 50’s I told friends that I felt like I could just snap my fingers and start a new program, project, or plan. Having done just that in a large, vertically integrated health care system, a great family planning organization, and a successful national effort to create legislative policy changes, my…
Creating Community for Everyone 