The man who has no imagination has no wings. – Muhammad Ali The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month? – Muhammad Ali In June, it seems that gardening, graduation, marriage, and gay pride are what we are…
Thus, in sharing stories, we have the potential for forging new relationships…. – Dyson, A. H., & Genishi, C. (1994). The need for story: Cultural diversity in classroom and community. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. This week I have been contemplating the mediating power of words as I blog about community building. This exercise…
This week I started writing my daily blog posts with the premise that there is a lot of work to go around in developing robust, active, engaging communities where people really stick to each other. I sat down and quickly identified two dozen things people could be doing to build and sustain communities. (The full…
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…
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…
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…
The revolutionary eats and sleeps the revolution, the grand cleansing moment when a new order will triumph, and then, once it has happened, he finds himself wandering among corpses and ruins. — Siri Hustvedt, Living, Thinking, Looking These past weeks, particularly this week, news in the US has been directed toward unrest in Baltimore and…
Creating Community for Everyone 