Fully Present Post 50

I love my job because I get to spend my days with college students.  I love their energy, their enthusiasm, and their general idealism.   These days, college professors and administrators are taking a lot of heat from the public for what some say is coddling or overprotection in the form of safe zones, trigger warnings, and a focus on micro-aggressions. Our critics say that we aren’t allowing students to learn how to deal with adversity.  I wonder if we haven’t gone too far in our desire to create a welcoming and inclusive campus climate. Continue reading “Studentsensitivity”

Insurance wouldn’t cover  it, so I forked over $206 for a Shingles vaccine at my annual physical this week because I had the money. Having the money substantially decreases the probability that I would fall victim to that painful, scaring, and scary looking disease called Shingles that can cause permanent nerve damage.  But what about the man or woman who doesn’t have $206 lying around?  Should prudent healthcare continue to be a privilege rather than a right? Continue reading “I’m for Single Payer Healthcare”

I love springtime.  It is by far my favorite time of the year. I love the blooming flowers, the cool weather, and the green hillsides.  For someone who loves spring as much as me, it seems peculiar that I wasn’t born or even conceived in the spring.  The coming of spring holds a special promise of hope, life and renewal.  Maybe I love spring because all my children were born in the spring.  Graduation ceremonies happen in the spring.  Spring also brings with it a special set of transitional tasks that I fully embrace every year. Continue reading “Springtime”

I stood there in silent shock and dismay as I was introduced to a group of people by someone I had just recently met.  And by recently, I mean we had been working together for a few months.  The introduction beyond my name and title included a bizarre reference to my beautiful singing voice.  I would have been fine with that as it was meant to be a compliment, except for a few minor details.  Continue reading “Known and Loved Chapel Talk”

Last November my two brothers and I celebrated the fact that we had officially outlived our parents.  Then one of my brothers had a massive cerebral hemorrhage Sunday, February 19 and died on Tuesday, February 21.  He had been proclaimed brain dead that Sunday and was placed on life support to give his children the opportunity to say their “goodbyes”.  Once my nephew arrived Monday night from D.C., he passed on his own. Continue reading “Dealing with Death”

Most people have lied at least once in their lives.  I know I’ve lied to avoid hurting someone’s feelings: “Yes, I like your new haircut.” I’ve lied to avoid embarrassment: “I wonder where that awful smell is coming from?” I’ve lied to avoid getting into trouble: “I don’t know who broke the vase.” I’ve even lied to prove a point: “I got that fact from the encyclopedia.” But like most of you, I’ve put away the childish act of lying and found ways to effectively  to avoid telling uncomfortable truths.  These days, any misrepresentations of the truth are actually honest lapses in my memory.  I’d like to think that if I were to tell a lie today, it would be to protect someone’s life, like the courageous Corrie Ten Boom who hid Jews from the Nazis as depicted in the movie, “The Hiding Place”.  But these days, adults who should be role models are lying like crazy and without consequence.  These folks are using made up terms for their lying like “alternative facts” or “misspoken words” or “my opinion”.  When did espousing false facts or lying become acceptable?  In the country I hope to leave to the next generation, it is not acceptable!  Continue reading “To Tell the Truth”

People around me know that I was never confident that Hillary Clinton was going to win against Donald Trump.  In the days leading up to the 2016 election, I took comfort in all the polls that said he wasn’t going to win.  In retrospect,  I’m grateful for those polls because they helped me sleep more peacefully for a few weeks.  I would use those polls to reassure myself that I was wrong in my conviction that the ugliness of ethnocentrism and racism that hide deep  inside every human, was going to erupt within enough individuals at the last moment in the privacy of a voting booth.  And I believe it did.  Continue reading “The Ugliness inside: Ethnocentrism and Racism”

Yesterday, I woke up to a very angry husband professing how he wasn’t a violent man, but how he wanted to punch Donald Trump in the mouth. He was so angry–angrier than I have ever seen him.  Until now my husband had been calm in comparison to my daily outrage over each new executive order and stupid tweet.  My otherwise gentle husband confessed that his avoidance of the news had staved off his outrage until yesterday morning.  I don’t know what possessed him to finally watch the news, but he did and there it was: angry energy demanding release. Anger is an explosive force.  Unless you’re one of those people who has learned to manage anger without destroying people, then it is best to avoid it.  But if you’ve learned how to channel anger, then anger serves its true purpose as a powerful motivator and great fuel for positive action.  Continue reading “Anger Management”

Times have changed.  Our young adults may not show up when we need them most.  And that scares the hell out of me! There was a time in my life when I showed up for pretty much anything and everything.  I had youthful energy and enthusiasm to drive me.  In those days, I never stopped to ask myself if I should or shouldn’t show up.  It hadn’t occurred to me that I wouldn’t show up to a workshop, a party, a class, church, or an event.  I always showed up.  And if I signed up to be there, I was there.  I was there whenever and wherever I was expected.  I never stopped to ask myself if I wanted to be here or there.  I just showed up as if I had no choice in the matter. In my late 30s that changed.  I got into the habit of questioning whether or not I would show up.  How and why did that happen?  And has this questioning been a good thing or a bad thing?  Continue reading “Showing Up”