Written in the air of a room

Every book is for someone. The act of writing may be solitary, but it is always a reach toward another person – a single person – since every book is read alone. The writer does not know for whom she writes. The reader’s face is invisible, and yet, every sentence inscribed on a page represents…

Ideas that are big enough

My essays are a form of mind travel, of walking toward answers with an acute awareness that I will never come to the end of the road. I use my own experiences the way I use the experiences of others – as insights to further an idea. – Siri Hustvedt, Living, Thinking, Looking, 2014 This…

Paddle like hell

X-Ray technicians Yard conductors Yard hostlers Yard loader operators Yeast makers Yellow pages space salespersons Yoga instructors Yoga teachers Youth program directors Youth services librarians Youth workers Zoning engineers Zookeepers Zoologists and wildlife biologists Zoologists Zoology professors S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook At the end of day, there is still work to be…

Hard work for a common goal

Dance artists Dance costume designers Dance directors Dance masters Dancers and choreographers Database administration manager Database administrators Database coordinator Database developers Database management system specialist Database security administrator Data operations director Data processing equipment repairers Data processing managers Data processing systems analyst Daycare aides Day care attendants Daycare providers Day care workers DBMS specialist Deboners…

Imagine what would be possible

E-commerce directors Early childhood special education teachers Early childhood special educators Early childhood teachers Early Head Start directors Early head start teachers Earth loading equipment operators Earth science professors Eastern philosophy professors Ecological modelers Ecologists Ecology professors Econometricians Econometrics professors Economic development planners Economic geographers Economists Edge trimmer mechanics Edition binding workers Editorial cartoonists Editorial…

There is work to do

Abdominal sonographers Able seamen Absorption and adsorption engineers Academic deans Academic librarians Accompanists Accountants Account auditors Account clerks Account executives, securities and investments Account executives Accounting clerks Accounting professors Accounts collectors Accounts payable clerks Accounts receivable assistants Accounts receivable clerks Acoustical carpenters Acquisitions librarians Activities aides Activities assistants Activities coordinators Activities leaders Activity specialists Actors…

The ambivalence of liberalism

So you get this sort of ambivalent response – we’ll embrace the idea, but we will not embrace the reality. – john a. powell, A Civil Conversation with Krista Tippet, On Being, March 10, 2015 This statement by john a. powell has been haunting me since I read it a week or so ago. My…

It’s all personal

There’s also the language of personal responsibility, which suggests really that there’s no institutional and structural responsibility. There’s no collective responsibility. If you’re not doing well, it’s not because of anything that we in society have done. It’s not because of our history, our legacy of Jim Crow, segregation, exploitation and subordination; it’s all personal.…

What. Planet.

I can’t decide today not to be black, because the world will insist that I am black, and there are institutions and arrangements that define me that way. I can’t decide not to be black and go in New York and hail a cab. The first cab drivers driving by are not inside my own…