Planted Face Sprouts Purple Eye
It was a gardening-perfect day. The sun poured light like glistened milk from heaven into my garden lot. Towering spouts of gray […]
Blame Election Hyperbole on Six Moral Foundations
After Tuesday’s elections spouse asked, “What are your Facebook friends saying about the election?” First let me explain: spouse will not, under any circumstances ever, join Facebook—yet, he’s a semi-Facebook voyeur always asking, “What are the peeps saying today?” (Sometimes I’ll read him the posts in their entirety to demonstrate the utter blandness of my Facebook page. But I’ve blocked the fire starters as a measure of my good health, AKA lowered blood pressure.) Anyway, I decided to take a cruise through […]
Not So Fast With The Hair Straightening, Missy
When I released my dependence upon hair color and liberated my grey roots I opted for a great haircut to enhance my […]
Rachel Carson’s Relevancy Fifty Years Later
I read Silent Spring in 1968. It changed my view of the natural world and was more than incidental in my personal growth. Carson’s plea for moderation and close observance to what and how we walk upon this earth speaks louder today than it did 50 years ago. Her opponents live on and rally against anything that smirks of environmentalism. To my point of view their arguments remain shallow and manipulated.
Remodeling Dysfunction’s Murderous Stink
I grew up in dysfunction. I smell dysfunction’s stink in an instant. As an adult, some of the dysfunction from my childhood stuck. Several tragedies later, I recognized my behavior and how my behavior hurt others. My stinky self begged for a remodel. (It remains a work in progress.)
A Murdered Man’s Ghost
Before we knew that the young man who lived behind our home was apparently murdered, weird vibes wafted through my back yard, […]
Behind a Murdered Man
I wasn’t shocked when a sheriff pulled into my driveway Sunday afternoon—a magnificent Sunday afternoon colored with a blue that only the Pacific Ocean can conjure underneath a cloudless sky. We just returned from an ocean bluffs walk where we showed off our beautiful and peaceful village to a LA visitor who arrived in the wee hours of the morning with our daughter and her boyfriend. Pelicans soared overhead and we raced to get the best photo. I kept my eye out […]
Love Thy Neighbor. Seriously?
Love thy neighbor. Oh boy! I’d guess it’s a direct challenge by the task’s author. The directive is akin to a parent’s demand, “Eat thy chicken gizzards.” (My apologies to those who love eating chicken gizzards.) But as there are foods one cannot stomach, so there are “thy neighbors” that one cannot stomach. Yet, we’re supposed to love them. Twelve years of parochial school education lingers in my concern about the divine directives. Today, one will not find gizzards or any kind […]
Why I Missed the 4th of July
Also seen in SLO New Times I missed this year’s Fourth of July. I was here in America. I was awake. No […]
Brian Wilson’s Songs Of My Life
“Are you going to the prom?” a high school friend asked me on a warm May afternoon in 1966. In the background, Brian Wilson’s perfect falsetto crooned, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” It made me think of my boyfriend, Ricky, at the time. We were hot teens and I was a good Catholic girl. “Not this one,” I replied, hinting disappointment. It was my own senior prom. “Can’t you bring Ricky?” my friend asked. I thought about our last date at the local […]
