The Never-Ending To-Do List: Being & Becoming It’s the eve of the New Year, 2023. It’s 2:00 a.m. and my day is starting early as it has been recently while I recover from my hip-replacement surgery. My sleep schedule is turned upside down, so I’m up earlier than normal. It’s okay. I’m a morning person, the most productive time of day for me. I enjoy my three or four cups of joe as I logon to my laptop to see what’s happening in the world, and in my social media circle. Each year in September, I begin a new journal, and name it. This year’s journal is titled, To-Do List Confessions. The timing of each year’s new journal is the start of my late summer, early fall annual staycation. I take seven to ten days off of work. I usually make a ‘to-do if I want to list,’ a compilation of intentions, some creative, mostly writing projects, activities that feed my spirit like attending art galleries, films, coffee and brunch dates with friends and family, and completing long-overdue tasks for which I’ve procrastinated.
Mixed Metaphors
Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.
Tag Archives: Activism
Rainbow Scare
“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” — Maya Angelou
“If the Supreme Court can reverse Roe, it can reverse anything” — Mary Ziegler
Earlier in June, I began to consider a topic for my next blog post. I often begin my writing process with research, reading online, frequently the subject is politics, culture wars, and/or the news of the day. I also reflect on my lived experience and things that pique my curiosity.
I decided on Rainbow Scare and soon after read an opinion piece by Allison Hope. I also became alarmed when the leak occurred earlier in May of the draft Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade and its potential impact overturning settled law. It raised the possibility that the gains we made in the last decades could be undone. We’d essentially go back in time. We could lose reproductive rights, both access to abortions and contraceptives, and for women, the ability to make decisions about what happens to our bodies, plus our LGBTQ+ community may have our marriages nullified and our relationships criminalized. Oh, my! Continue reading
Summer of Soul Revisited
“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.” — Corrie ten Boom
Memories provide us perspective on understanding the present from the lens of the past. Memories are also a portal to the future as lived experiences and our history are revisited by new generations. Continue reading
Shouting from the Soapbox: A New Series
“Pick a subject you care so deeply about that you’d speak on a soapbox about it.” — Kurt Vonnegut
“I’m furious about the Women’s Liberationists. They keep getting up on soap-boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, though it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.” — Anita Loos
A blog is many things, a public journal, a conversation with oneself, a showcase for writing and ideas, an exercise in vanity and a soapbox. Vonnegut’s quote speaks to me. I write about subjects I care deeply about, my relationship with myself, relationships with others, and my place in the larger community. I write from my lived experience, what I’ve learned from others, and what it means in the larger context of the world we live in.
During the past seven years since I’ve launched this blog, I’ve often stood up and shouted from my soapbox, sometimes simply to break the silence, to speak about the unspeakable, and acknowledge that we are only as sick as our secrets. I’ve often written that “The personal is political and the political is personal.” Continue reading
1968 – Flashback & Fast Forward
“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.” — Corrie ten Boom
Every two years, Madison’s Forward Theater launches a monologue festival with a dedicated theme. From their website, “Forward Theater’s biennial monologue festival is back! Featuring a dozen original pieces written just for us by playwrights from across our community and around the nation, this festival celebrates the many different ways creative authors can approach a common subject. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, our Two Steps Forward festival will encompass a wide variety of perspectives on and interpretations of our state’s long progressive tradition.” I’ve submitted monologues in the past and did so again this year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t selected. The Two Steps Forward monologue festival will be performed one weekend in June 2019. I suggest you get your tickets now. I have mine! Following is my monologue submission: Continue reading
1968: Flashback & Fast Forward
“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.” — Corrie ten Boom
“Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.” — William Wordsworth
It’s been a month since I wrote and posted an essay on Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! The present has been occupying my attention and engaging my time. In early June I intended to draft a reminiscence about 1968, the year I graduated from high school. In September I’ll attend a 50-year high school reunion in my hometown of Racine, Wisconsin. Oh, My! Continue reading
Finding the Light in Dark Times
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton
It seems timely — that on the eve of the New Year and the eve of the January Supermoon — I take a look back at the past year and look ahead to the New Year, while I search for the light to give us hope in what can only be described as dark times. Continue reading
The Toilet Zone: Unhappy Anniversary
Note: This is the sixth and final installment of The Toilet Zone, a commentary series on the first year of the Trump presidency.
“You can’t move forward until you look back.” — Cornel West
First, let me go on record. I resisted writing another opinion piece about the Trump presidency. This past week marked the year anniversary of the election — and for many of us — Trump’s startling, shock-wave inducing, tear-filled, head-shaking victory, followed by intermittent denial, and expressions of WTF! Every day since the election, I’ve consumed more than my fair share of news and commentary on Trump’s presidency and the state of the world. I’m more awake than I care to be most days. Continue reading