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Category Archives: helping each other

DEAR PARKLAND

Dear Parkland…and all the others: There’s a peculiar notion afoot that only survivors and experts can write about important issues, but I take exception to that. I was not present in Parkland or in Sandy Hook and have never seen up close a child bleeding to death with a gaping wound from a paramilitary firearm,Continue reading “DEAR PARKLAND”

A SAD GOOD-BYE TO PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN

The words “addict” and “greatest actor” don’t go together comfortably in our minds. Addicts are down and out, they’re criminals, you don’t want to be around them. They’re dirty and dangerous. But then, there’s Philip Seymour Hoffman. Years ago, I saw a film about programs in The Netherlands and Switzerland under which addicts are treatedContinue reading “A SAD GOOD-BYE TO PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN”

Tragedy all around

Yoga evens you out and strengthens you, but more importantly, meditation (which simply means sitting there and breathing) invites strength and balance to deal with tragedy and pessimism. So what is the pessimism of the day?  Global warming, which threatens our very existence, the unexpected accidental death of an extraordinary person you know, the massContinue reading “Tragedy all around”

Our Children Are Not Our Children

This is a photograph of my grandchildren looking out on the Pacific Ocean. They have their backs to us, and that is appropriate.  As Kahlil Gibran writes in his poem On Children: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. …….. You may house their bodiesContinue reading “Our Children Are Not Our Children”

Who does the dusting?

I love Joli’s comment to my earlier post that “if behind every great man is a woman, then behind every great woman is not a man who steps up to dust, but a housekeeper.” “Equality” in housekeeping has been, in my experience, an empty word. Just looking around me, if the woman doesn’t like toContinue reading “Who does the dusting?”