On November 9, 2016, I woke up for my usual two am bathroom call and a snack. What was unusual that morning was my curiosity regarding the election results. I recall watching the TV the night before as talking heads and pundits grew pale and nearly speechless as the election results came in. I admit it was fun watching those who like to tell us what to think and believe being confronted with their limitations […]
Once in awhile, a quote stands out that expresses the belief of a whole generation. On page 14 of his book Humans of New York Stories, Brandan Stanton, author of the wonderful website Humans of New York captured the essence of INCLUSION. On that page you will find the picture of a pretty young lady in a wheelchair. After growing up in an ISOLATED world she explains what INCLUSION means to her. Here is what she said: “I want to make […]
I’m a relic of sorts. A throwback to the time when words like retarded and disabled were used professionally. In the late 1960’s I was a direct care giver for seriously emotionally disturbed children. Later, I oversaw professional services in a state hospital unit for the mentally retarded. In the late 1970’s I directed two facilities for severely mentally and physically handicapped children. The labels I used above were accepted at the time. I was […]
Eugenics: A combination of the Greek words for well and born. If the word Eugenics is new to you, join the club, most people don’t recognize it. Today it is seldom if ever used. Still, you know what it means, you know what its end game is; you simply don’t pair the results with the word. Eugenics is a pseudo-social science started in the late 19th and wildly popular up through the 1930’s. Its’ foundations were […]
The inaugural Slow Motion Poem is; One Can Never June One can never read enough good books. One can never hear enough good music. One can never show too much compassion. One can never have enough green in springtime. July One can never share enough joy. One can never show too much love to your family. One can never replace the years in a child’s life. One can never measure the true strength of a […]
I know almost nothing about poetry. I know it can take any number of forms. Some are pretty darn interesting. Take sonnets, haiku, rhyming, prose, and micro poetry for examples, although they may be interesting, their complexity scares me to death. Yet I still wanted to write poetry. Given my naiveté in this area, for me to write a poem, I need something simple and easy. So I think I created another form, one I […]
After completing the first draft of the story of Anna Olson in December of 2012, I had a huge document, almost 200,000 words long! I’m not sure how many pages that translated to but those were a lot of words. It was cumbersome and wordy and need to be trimmed down. For one thing, I included un-needed material on Anna’s parents growing up in Norway, how they met, and why they came to the US. […]
It’s been a great adventure, the last three years of writing. Writing was and is sometimes smooth and easy, with the story just pouring out of my head for days and weeks at a time. Sometimes it was a struggle and a few pages a day seemed almost impossible. For example, the entire first chapter in Isolated in America has been very difficult and I am still not sure I have it right. I spent […]
Who knew I would be brought to my ethical knees by a bag of potatoes? It is true though, a measly sack of spuds prompted me to disregard my moral compass. I have always thought I had a pretty good sense of right and wrong, never taking what wasn’t mine, never cheating anyone, never knowingly doing harm. I’m not perfect mind you; we all do things that aren’t quite right based on some religious or […]
Below is an e-mail I sent to my brothers and a few friends who from time to time have been subjected to my own brand of humor. It went out on election day-as a release from the …well you read it. You may also want to read the post “No Way” to IO-way, it was my first election rant of a few years back. Written November 5 and 6, 2012 Brothers and all, Well, here we are, […]
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