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...

There is a race war happening on social media. The strange thing about it is that the virtual soldiers on this electronic battlefield are all white. It is not a war between races. It’s a thread war of words between white people who are offended by racist ideology and symbolism, and white people who are offended that other white people are offended by the symbols and ideals that they see as history, heritage, and tradition. It is surprising to me that in 2018 that there is not agreement on what is racist and what is not. It is shocking to me that there are many white people who still believe in the “lost cause” theory regarding the civil war. It is unfathomable to me that there are still people who can say “the war of northern aggression” with a straight face. I read the comments again and again. Lots of white people want us to stop talking about racism. They think that if we pretend it never existed, then it will cease to exist. A true exists tential dilemma. I unders...

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...