Some prose is really poetry, isn’t it? “Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place. Nothing outside you can give you any place, he said. You needn’t look at the sky because it’s not going to open up and show no place behind it. You needn’t to…
“You have no power here! Begone! – before someone drops a house on you too!” Long, long ago there were healing women, women wise with the knowledge of herbs, of sound and smell and taste, of birthing and guidance and support. Their various mindsets are probably not ones that we can fully understand or inhabit today, although an undeniable hunger for their possible stories is evident in our fictions. History may be written by the winners, but speculative imagination is…
Listen up, you so-called Patriots. Any power interest that dehumanizes other Americans, other people, IS THE BAD GUY. What does it take for you to understand that? I’m getting very tired of receiving hate propaganda in my email. The latest bit followed the predictable pattern – taking one small fact and spinning it to appeal to the dark side of the reader. In 2009, President Obama appointed two highly-qualified people to important posts. Today, in 2012, I get an email…
This is the single best essay that I’ve read on the subject of Christmas “wars.” Whatever your views on “the reason for the season,” whatever prejudices you harbor, whatever hatemongers have influenced your thinking, whether you call yourself a christian or not (and whether or not you even have any sense for what that could really mean), please don’t send me a single further email or a message on Facebook or a status about being a “real American” until you…
When one can articulate something, it’s important to do so. This is necessary for dialogue and for understanding and for authentic self-appraisal. But what if one lacks the capacity to do so, or resists doing so? And what if the attempts to do so trivialize the ineffable? Rule one of intellectual engagement is that all parties must sincerely attempt both to understand others and to make themselves understood. It has become evident to me, however, that many people, especially the…
“The temptation of knowledge is despair.” ~ Me Lead me not into this temptation.