For all of Facebook’s virtues and vices, there is one aspect of it which those of us of a certain age probably marvel at more than most. It provides a way to peek into the lives of friends and acquaintances from high school in a way that we otherwise would be unable to do. It … Continue reading
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A Kinder Gentler Place
The nation said goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter last week, and as all of the living former Presidents and many of the former Vice-Presidents gathered to pay their respects it was impossible, for those of us old enough to have lived through each of their administrations to make comparisons among them. I was only … Continue reading
Forgetful Gullibility: American’s New Deadly Pandemic
Are you better off now than 4 years ago? Some think that her inability to answer this question to the satisfaction of Trump-supporting Americans is what ultimately cost Kamala Harris the presidency. I don’t believe that she didn’t have a satisfactory answer, but rather that she was being cautious in her rhetoric, as politicians, (except, … Continue reading
Too Much of a Gentleman
Here I am in 1976. I was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. From ages 9 to 12 I had been somewhat vaguely aware of the Watergate scandal, not because it was interesting (the long summer of the Watergate hearings made for very boring television), but because, from the adults all around me, … Continue reading
Always Listen to the “Something Just Said”
A feeling, a “hunch”, the “I don’t know how I know, but I know” sensation that most of us have probably felt at least once in our lives may be one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe. Some may define it formally as “intuition” but in my childhood household my mother always referred … Continue reading
The Power of We
Colossians 3:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV) 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all … Continue reading
The Age of Aquarius – Really?
In 1970, I was seven years old, and a singing group called, (Huey, n.d.), was about the coolest thing that a little black girl from Terre Haute, Indiana could see on television. Back then, it was rare to see non-white Americans on TV (or just about anywhere else for that matter) so when a group … Continue reading
What’s the Point of Conversation?
The Quora Chronicles – Part 8 Many times, when questions like this one appear in my “Asked to Answer” notifications on Quora I find myself wondering about the person who asked the question and why they asked it. Is this person simply shy, anti-social, or a Millennial or Gen Z who communicates mostly through social … Continue reading
Cracking the Code – The Quora Chronicles Part 5
How Teaching ESL Sometimes Requires the Sleuthing Skills of Sherlock Holmes I love language – reading, writing, grammar, spelling – it all just makes perfect sense to me. So after a 26-year detour working in Corporate America, in 2010 I took the plunge and returned to school for a master’s degree in Education with a … Continue reading
Accentuating the Negative? The Quora Chronicles Part 2
“You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positiveE-lim-i-nate the negativeAnd latch on to the affirmativeDon’t mess with Mr. In-betweenYou got to spread joy up to the maximumBring gloom down to the minimumAnd have faith, or pandemoniumLiable to walk upon the scene.” (Arlen & Mercer, 1944) With its relentlessly upbeat lyrics, it is fairly ironic that Arlen and … Continue reading