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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
What Patriotism Looks Like
Yesterday reminded me once again that people don’t protest in countries they don’t love and believe in. I saw yesterday an outpouring of love and the still alive conviction that we can do better than what’s happening right now. A still alive rejection of any form of tyranny. Americans still prefer the imperfections and utter […]
Why Government Matters
Since the launch of the Department of Government Efficiency, I’ve been meaning to write a piece about, well, “government efficiency.” For those people who have had the privilege to work in the public sector, we know the breadth and depth of the challenges that our country faces and the commitment to service that enables public […]
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 […]
I Love Us. Still.
Waking to tragedy. Another day of epidemic of violence and destruction. This is our story. It’s not our only story, but as a species, we seem to have a lust for blood and destruction. Perpetual outbreaks. Another insane person weaponizing their personhood, tossing their soul on a pyre to take as many as possible with […]
Service and Survivors Guilt
I was recently in Buncombe County invited by those leaders and community members working hard on recovery from Helene. When your world has been turned upside down, this is an especially hard time of year. One woman in Swananoa talked about what it was like to have one of the few livable houses on her […]