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…
Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the…
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…
We become ourselves through others, and the self is a porous thing, not a sealed container. If it begins as a genetic map, it is one that is expressed over time and only in relation to the world… We do not author ourselves, which is not to say that we have no agency or responsibility,…
Grief, after all, is desire for the dead or for what’s been lost and can never come again. Grief is longing. This was stasis without fulfillment. This was the world stopped, meaning extinguished. – Siri Hustvedt, Living, Thinking, Looking More than a dozen years ago, Paul and I were in a serious train wreck with…
Desire is the engine of life, the yearning that goads us forward with stops along the way, but it has no destination, no final stop, except death. – Siri Hustvedt, Living, Thinking, Looking This week I am writing with Martha, Rose, Gail, David, and Julio in mind. My weekend was filled with them, filled before they…
Creating Community for Everyone 