I listened to an interesting discussion about racial bias in language on YouTube the other day. The conversation was between a Caucasian host and an African American woman who consults on race sensitivity. The guest made the point that attention to language is one way to change cultur
I hadn’t ordered the book. It was sandwiched between two purchases I’d made from Alexander McCall Smith’s series, The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Was this a mistake in the shipment I wondered or a bonus of some kind? Not knowing, I set the volume aside and plunged int
St. Ignatius Loyola, a Jesuit priest, is credited with saying, “Give us a child till he’s seven and we’ll have him for life.” Growing up as a Catholic, I believed Loyola until I turned eleven. That was the year I left the Church to listen to the sound of my own drummer. St
Perhaps, my mother’s passing colors my reaction to the current demonstrations for racial and economic equality. I continue to see the need for change, but when Death takes the center stage, it presents a standard that when measured against the demonstrations makes the latter seem
Where it has been imposed, the Covid-19 lockdown begins to seem endless, particularly because the number of victims continues to rise despite the precaution. In some states, sheer economic exhaustion has emboldened a few businesses to open. But, if the spike continues to rise, these s
When I was a child, before television, I looked forward to attending Sunday matinees with my mother. If a film was popular and held over for a second week, waiting the extra time for a new title to appear on the billboard felt like a disaster. Forever Amber was held over, I recall, an
In the midst of the George Floyd tragedy and the protests that have followed, this might not be the time for a calm debate on how to reform the justice system in this country. Nonetheless, cries to dismantle our police forces are troubling and need to be addressed. I agree change i
While my mother’s death feels like blisters under my skin; while there are riots in the streets– a reaction to police brutality; and while the pandemic continues to rage, killing over 100,000 people in the United States, I’ve spent my evenings without the news and chosen to
My mom’s death was a long goodbye. I’d anticipated her passing since she’d reached her late 70’s, after her bout with breast cancer and her heart attack. But she surprised me, as she sometimes did. She died at 104 in a care facility where she’d resided for 16 years. Througho
Like pandemics of the past, Covid-19 will probably leave lasting social change in its wake. A person doesn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that contagions usually alter the course of human life. The Black Plague broke the back of the feudal system, for example. (“How Pandemi