Take Back Your Life!

Hey “get off the beaten path” folks,

Just returned from strolling through my old junior high. Actually, it’s not a junior high any more, it’s my hometown’s town offices. Much of that building had been reconfigured so I had a hard time figuring out where I was at first — lockers gone, classrooms gone. Then I decided to look for the “staircase” of fond young love memories. The staircases back then were one way for a reason I never understood then and still don’t know now. All I knew was that I slipped out of science class the second the bell rang and ran up the down staircase hoping to “bump” into the object of my desire – John Donovan. It often worked. On those glorious days, he’d nuzzle up to me a bit, look down at me and swagger hello. God, I almost died of lust and longing right there on the top of the landing. Yes, even at the tender age of 12, I risked getting in trouble for the boy that evoked the most delicious kind of lust in me. (more…)

Dear critical thinking ones,

A few months back, a friend of mine said, “Land is an endangered species.” Her words stopped me in my suburban tracks. I’d always thought of animals and plants as being endangered (and maybe critical thinking) but land? It only took a moment for me to agree and recall what Mark Twain said, “Buy land, they’re not making it any more.” Here are some stats on land loss in the US.

6,000 acres a day
4 acres per minute
land the size of Seattle every nine days

And so few notice or care. (more…)

Hello warmhearted folks.

For much of my life, I tried to hide my tears. Somewhere along the line I learned that tears were bad. Tears were weak. Tears were failure.

Instead, I counteracted the emotion that wanted to come out by thinking happy thoughts. Breathing in and out quickly. Turning from the person. Letting my hair droop over my eyes. Excusing myself to go to the bathroom. (more…)

Hey friends,

I wasn’t popular in high school. Just kinda did my own neurotic thing. Yet I remained keenly aware of the popular kids. Usually, they were cheerleaders or athletes, rarely theater folks or geeks or the dead languages-speaking crowd. They all looked good and inter-dated. Once one of the good looking athletes broke up with his cheerleader girlfriend to go out with a brainy girl. Man, did he and his new girl take a lot of abuse for dating outside the flock!

That’s one of the main problems with being popular —  to keep the label you have to conform to what the group wants you to do. So much so that I believe it may have driven some popular kids off the deep end a bit later in life. (more…)