In my week of writing about criticism, I took what for some might have seemed like a detour yesterday to write about voting and the disenfranchisement of my late husband by a system that disabled him. Let me explain. Paul had Type IV Multiple Sclerosis, a particularly pernicious form of the disease that was progressive…
My late husband, Paul Mandracchia, loved to vote and nothing could dissuade him from doing so. Those who knew Paul were aware that the last several years of his life it took him forever to get dressed. Often there were three of us in on that project. Usually Jose or Anneke or Leslie joined me…
During an interview on Fresh Air, Jacob Bernstein, the son of Nora Ephron, said when asked about his mother’s sharp criticism, “she had a razor in her mouth.” He was referring to her toughness as an editor, seemingly unafraid to urge writers – even her son – to cut, cut, cut. In the context of…
Usually I have very little trouble attending to a single topic or issue about which to write for five days each week. In the more than 175 posts I have written in this blog, I may have had two days when I approached the computer thinking, “I have nothing about which to write.” This week…
Yesterday I thrice commented on things I learned in two college courses in linguistics before I blurted to my friend and colleague Mischelle, “They may have been the most useful classes I ever took.” Together with Latin and English, these linguistics courses taught me ways of understanding the world through the use of language. My…
I lament the loss of civil discourse, though I fear at times I am involved in its painful demise. As I write this week about politics, I am struck by my longing for the language of protests of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Hell, I am hungry for something that approaches a good argument. To…
Aristotle coined the term political animal – politikon zoon – in his work Politics in which he puts forth his belief that citizens must actively participate in politics if we are to be happy. To Aristotle, we are creatures intended to live in community. He understood us to be social animals. Aristotle reasoned that humans…
One of the by-products of having been raised poor and later working class is my ongoing challenge stating what is politic. I am often in the position of saying what is deemed unwise, not judicious, or imprudent. For many more years than I care to estimate, I have been cautioned, marginalized, and – at times…
Col. Chris Austin Hadfield, a retired Canadian astronaut, is perhaps best known for his cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity from outer space. Born in 1959, Hadfield recalls his early dream of space travel beginning at about age 7 during a TED talk he recorded in 2014. After his dream became reality, he has been remarkable…
Most semesters I get at least one student paper that questions, “Who am I to interfere (ask a question, interrupt, intercede, protest, and so on)?” For fear of being “inappropriate,” these young adults take the role of bystander in the situations they describe. I suspect that aspects of these reactions to life events are developmental;…
Creating Community for Everyone 