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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Working
There are days when the world is just too much to think about and I put my head down and just do the work in front of me. It’s a family trait to carry ourselves through the world as if we can outwork every problem. Our confidence comes from having done just that on so […]
Angels and Hogs
Growing older comes with nine kinds of losses. I often find myself sad. Unaccountably sad. Inexplicably sad. The rate of loss is such that I can’t quite keep up with the mourning. And then I remember. None of this was meant to last forever. I remember infinity and that there are angels amongst us. People […]
On Time
Dear Social Sector Leaders, I have stopped calling you “nonprofit” leaders because what kind of nonsense category is that? I am going to “out” you right now. Not by name. But here’s what you say over the late night calls, or after a glass of wine, or when you are so worn out you can’t […]
Old and Hot
Dear Social Sector Leaders, I have stopped calling you “nonprofit” leaders because what kind of nonsense category is that? I am going to “out” you right now. Not by name. But here’s what you say over the late night calls, or after a glass of wine, or when you are so worn out you can’t […]
2016
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 One of our early Houston founding families supported the creation of settlement houses and community centers, because, as he said, “neighbors should live as friends”. I just recently returned from Germany. A country leading the struggle to welcome newcomers, to make a place for over a million Syrian refugees. German […]
SAVING GRACE
Loving Detachment When I desperately wanted to save my family from the ravages of the disease of alcoholism, I would have gone to any lengths to force solutions, would have said anything, done anything. And I tried in all the ways I knew how, to adjust, to shape shift, to mitigate what was happening in […]