Insane Earthlings

This will be the most difficult Thanksgiving of all. This November 22 nd , 2018 will be the first celebrating without either of my parents. We lost Mom almost three years ago, and Dad left this earth seven months ago. We were fortunate to have both of our parents well into our own adulthoods. Even so, I must confess that I am struggling daily to fully immerse myself into my own life. I want to be as fully alive as both of my parents always seemed to be. But my struggle to reconnect to joy and enthusiasm in my daily life, let alone Holidays, is under assault. The country that I love seems to be collapsing into chaos and hell-bent on self-destruction. The torrent of bad news leaves me wondering just what should we be thankful for. As fires rage across California and Hurricanes become more frequent and fierce every year, we close our eyes and ears and pretend that our own greed is not contributing to the global climate change that spurs these events.   Our children a...

Like most people I know, we go on a family vacation every summer.   Usually we visit a coastal area. Mostly we have spent our vacations on the east coast somewhere between Nags Head, NC and Daytona Beach, FL. However, my oldest brother and his family had been going to Siesta Key on the gulf coast of Florida during spring break for years. Several years ago, we took the kids to Disney during spring break and drove the couple of hours to see my brother and family at Siesta Key.   We fell in love with the white sand that stayed cool to the touch. We were amazed at the clear blue water. We liked the calmness of the Gulf. So, we began making the trek to Siesta Key every other year or so for our vacation. We had never been morning people, so we never really witnessed the sunrise over the Atlantic.   But, I will never forget the first evening we watched the sun descend into the Gulf as we watched it set and disappear. For me it was a spiritual phenomenon that fi...

I have had enough of Donald Trump’s attacks on American journalists.   Labeling members of the press as enemies of the people is simply unacceptable and false. Journalists are heroes. I should know, my father was a photojournalist. Many of our friends are journalists. Many of my relatives are journalists.   For those of us close to people in the business, the President’s claims of fake news regarding well-established legitimate news organizations is head-scratchingly absurd. At first, I thought that this would just pass. I thought that the American people would push back against this crazy talk. I thought that people would not trust the words of a man who states that The National Enquirer has credibility. Donald Trump disparages real newspapers across this country daily. He treats the reporters with contempt publicly. My father worked his whole life as a news photographer.   Our city had two newspapers with large regional readerships.   The Charlott...