Power Flower (Not)
Here’s my new shrub / garden monument. It doesn’t flower and while it looks like it could be a homely bench, it’s not. Its roots are visible and pretty ugly too. The people who are specialists in planting these (you can’t just buy one and plant it yourself) are uniquely insensitive to its appearance and […]
Endings
A defining (for these times) speech by the Canadian Prime Minister. See video. PM Carney has walked through the rupture in the (now) old world order and declared a path to a new pattern of alliances and agreements that decenter the U.S. and draw stability from complex arrangements crafted by the “middle powers” of which he […]
Prepare to Obey
The cruelty isn’t the point. Terror is the point. So you learn to bow down. So you shut off your brain, stop trying to process the shouts and threats and just capitulate. So you prepare yourself in advance to obey unquestioningly any shouted order. No matter how confusing. You must fall to your knees in […]
Terms and Conditions II
The relentless self-centered lust for power over, dominance of, people, places and the resources they represent is inherently destructive. Quests for a god like form of control, one that elevates your every desire and whim and seeks to ensure your every impulse becomes a commandment – well, that hunger for control exists a bit in […]
Friends
I always thought we would be friends forever, especially when we were older. Together on our path. Our circumstances or distances would not matter. Imbalances would sort themselves out. To me, friendships forged in shared work or cause were permanent. Solidified by being together through the best and worst. The beautiful and beastly. But then […]
Lemonade
There is no better smell than a ripe Meyer Lemon. It has taken a few years since Winter Storm Uri for my new trees to make some fruit. For my garden to heal. And for me to heal as well – from a different kind of storm. Some destructive forces in our lives can be […]
Fall Finally
This morning fall is real. All my senses say so. Strangely, fall has a sound / not sound at my home in Houston. When the air conditioning shuts off for a long enough period that the background noises of birds and the roar of 69 and 288 are fully audible at 6:00AM. It’s a strange […]
Terms and Conditions
Today’s challenging question: what’s the right disaster recovery coordinating structure in an arena that stretches across multiple counties and jurisdictions? I think as disasters grow in their destructive impact, it becomes increasingly hard to create any sort of balance between local input and/versus state and federal level involvement. The first stage is so necessarily […]
Beginnings and Endings
Today I will begin a new chapter – and I’m looking forward to it. It has been rewarding to serve as the City of Houston’s Chief Recovery and Resilience Officer. And to work on important projects aimed at making Houston safer for everyone. The task of enhancing the resilience of this region is not […]
Season of Storms
What’s on my mind: The number of social enterprises (nonprofits) in some sort of financial crisis due to massive funding shifts. And the extent to which we rely upon them in this region without reassessing their capacity. The mental health of their leaders as they try to manage unreasonable expectations… The season of storm threats […]