The African man in his late fifties bowed his head and cupped his hands to form a bowl at waist height, seeming eager to accept the coin I was offering.  Newly arrived in Southern Rhodesia, (Zimbabwe)  in the 1960s, I was exhausted and wanted to thank him for helping with my luggage

The contest was in high gear, so she was casting her net for votes to be crowned a top book reviewer.  I’d recently joined the writer’s group and after reading a few of the woman’s blogs, I decided to help. Hitting the “like” button, I also added words of encouragement. She

A man in his 50s admitted on Facebook he was depressed about the changes he saw barreling down on society like a runaway train. He doubted the alterations were for the better.  As he is a liberal thinker, I supposed he was suffering from Trump fatigue and wondering, as I do, when our

A large book agency has asked to see the first 50 pages of my memoir, “Getting Lost to Find Home.”  I’m not turning cartwheels.  Most agents ask for sample pages as part of the query.  This one required a query before deciding to see more. Call it a baby step forward.  A req

In my late 20’s, after returning to the west coast from Africa, I sought a temporary job before entering graduate school. The employment office sent me to apply for clerical work with a large advertising firm in Los Angeles.  I was excited. Advertising had always interested me. For

Recently, a friend sent me a quote ascribed to the American anthropologist, Margaret Mead. It was her answer to a question that asked what constituted the first signs of civilization in a culture.  She said it would be a broken thighbone that had healed properly. In the wild, the dis

“My bathrooms are for customers only.” The white proprietress of a knitting shop stood with her arms folded as she blocked an African-American woman from entering.  The intended customer felt humiliated but didn’t explain she’d been through a rough patch and wanted to take up

During the second impeachment hearing for Donald Trump, a woman with a sense of irony shared this line from George Orwell’s novel, 1984 on her Facebook page. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.  The quote garn

In Costa Rica, or Panama or Honduras, wherever they’d migrated, when the piggy bank was empty, my maternal grandmother worked shifts in a local brothel to put food on the table.  She wasn’t a regular sex worker but rented rooms by the hour.  If she couldn’t afford the fee, she

“I don’t care if you are a Christian… you don’t get to dictate the way I live my life based on your religion.” The rant about abortion rights appeared on my Facebook page and as an atheist, I was sympathetic.  Because Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, s