The political is personal: week 6 of the COVID-19 social isolation, 2020, random day’s log
Yesterday between other political, domestic, family, and minimal self-care tasks* I was on two really good zoom calls. One was essentially about the importance of data-driven political organizing and education and the critical youth vote and one was about pretty much the same thing, and how to help good candidates get their message out and […]
The “wine mom centrist” speaks (the 2020 primary election sucks)
Since people are sharing their stories of supporting Elizabeth Warren while not being “elite,” here’s mine. I think I’m inspired because some rando “socialist” bro just referred to me as a “wine mom centrist” on Twitter, and I have lost IQ points just writing those words. I have supported a couple of different candidates in […]
Difficult conversations
Yesterday at a conference of grassroots progressive activists, I was listening to a panel of data experts discuss the preliminary analysis of who voted in the 2018 midterm elections. One of the guys presented an interesting data slice. He reported that (in a traditionally conservative area of California) among “independents” (meaning mostly conservatives who reject […]
Where They From?
Here is something I wrote much earlier this year but still applies to our daily reality of living in this era of sudden forgetfulness of the American Dream. Where They From? (with apologies to Missy Elliott) January 17, 2018 In the week before Martin Luther King Day, the sitting president* of the United States made […]
A Moment Changes Everything
I had the privilege of being in the Spark Off Rose storytelling show again last month, telling a story on the theme “A Moment Changes Everything.” Spark Off Rose is one of my favorite shows because of the care the producers take in choosing themes and stories and shaping them with writers. The monthly show […]
More tenderness
I’ve woefully neglected this blog, and I’m beyond feeling bad about it. There are reasons. Among them: 1) I’m writing other things. Okay, I’m not writing that much, but I’m thinking about writing other things. 2) I’m re-building my reading habit, which suffered grave injuries in college and graduate school (all those gigantic, dry as […]
Feet and the maiden
Some years I am so weighted down and distracted by my workaday life that I have a hard time locating some authentic, profound feelings of gratitude around the holidays. This year, the news helped me locate some of these sentiments. Happy Thanksgiving, readers. As I slipped on my shoes and left the house the other […]
Cute little divining rods
An interesting thing has been happening to me when I’m out with my baby. This may have happened with my first two children, but honestly, it’s been over a decade, and I don’t remember. (I didn’t remember until today how tedious and Sisyphean quartering and peeling grapes for a baby is.) I’ve been encountering acquaintances […]
Motherhood, Smotherhood: a hilarious book on the sometimes non-hilarious world of parenting
Motherhood Smotherhood by J.J. Keith My rating: 5 of 5 stars I enjoyed this book immensely and wish it had been around when I had my first child many years ago. It might have saved me from many lost hours I can never get back reading and listening to a lot of judgmental, absolutist BS […]
Supernatural: an intergenerational tale
Recently I found a link to audio from the first storytelling show that I participated in, the Spark Off Rose show from October 2010. The theme was “Supernatural,” and most of us told ghost stories of one kind or another. I read a story from the memoir manuscript I’ve been working on, about the few […]
