Tag Archives: Friends

Jun 16 2014
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Conversations w/My Next Girlfriend: Episode 6

Note: This is the sixth in the series of imaginary conversations with my next girlfriend.

Dear Next Girlfriend,

What a difference 10 days makes. A little over a week ago hundreds of same-sex couples in Wisconsin were getting married legally after a Federal District Judge, the Honorable Barbara Crabb, overturned the ban on same-sex marriage in Wisconsin. Many of the newlyweds (or newly registered) were people I knew, some who have been together 10, 15, 20 years or more, some raised children together, purchased homes, planned their lives as a family, and supported each other emotionally, physically, financially and spiritually. At least 637 marriage licenses have been applied for since Crabb’s ruling. 

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Apr 27 2014
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Lost & Found

Finding Vivian Maier

Yesterday I saw the film, Finding Vivian Maier. It is the previously untold story of a street and portrait photographer. Ms. Maier’s portraits were not staged or styled. Her subjects were often captured surreptitiously as she marched out into to the streets of Chicago with the children in her care. Vivian was a nanny to some of Chicago’s upper middle-class and wealthy families who lived along the North Shore of Lake Michigan. She left her job as a seamstress in New York to become a nanny so she could find ways to be outdoors, to be out in the world yet still hide in plain sight. Vivian was an undercover artist. Continue reading →

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Apr 20 2014
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Journal/Journey

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez

Years before I started writing for others, I wrote poetry and journaled for myself. Sometimes I would share a poem with the person who inspired it yet seldom a journal entry. Journaling by its very nature is a private act, a conversation with oneself, often a daily record of happenings, experiences and observations. Sometimes our loved ones or curious friends or colleagues surreptitiously read our journals. Much is written about the consequences of reading someone’s journal without the author’s permission.

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Mar 23 2014
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The Comfort of Sourdough Pancakes

How friends, family and food feed the spirit.

Life has a way of unfolding in waves. Some days the lake is calm, other days, treacherous. What’s required is an ability to navigate confidently and to be even-keeled when called upon. Sometimes we require a crew, shipmates who can prevent us from capsizing. Continue reading →

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Feb 09 2014
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Conversations w/My Next Girlfriend: Episode 4

Note: The following post is fourth in a series of imaginary conversations with my next girlfriend.

Dear Next Girlfriend,

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”  — Lucille Ball.

Who would have thought that Lucille Ball, comedienne and star of I Love Lucy, could express in a few simple words what I finally learned to practice after a decade in therapy?  Yes, it’s that time of year again, love is in the air and chocolatiers, florists, restaurants and the folks at Hallmark are busy trying to get into our pockets, and not to be too crude, but for those of you out there in a relationship, your “special someone” is  trying to get into your pants. Next girlfriend, I was hoping to be included in that group. Oh well, I’m going to practice patience while I wait for you and continue to enjoy and celebrate my single life, and today, acknowledge all the love I’m grateful to both give and receive. Continue reading →

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Jan 19 2014
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Beach Boys, Beatles, Bob Dylan & the Byrds

Growing Up in the Early 1960s

“Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now”   Lyrics from My Back Pages by Bob Dylan

A number of recent events and anniversaries coalesced this month, prompting me to reminisce. My birthday is in January and like the month’s namesake Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, I’ve been looking back at mine. Fifty years ago, as a baby boomer growing up in the early 1960’s, my life was about to change in ways I couldn’t imagine. Continue reading →

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Jan 14 2014
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Because Love

be·cause 

biˈkz,-ˈkəz/ conjunction 1. for the reason that; since.

love

ˈləv\  noun 1. a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person

Language, its etymology and meanings, evolves and reflects the times. And, so does love. Recent events illustrate both these points. The first is the word “because” which was named the 2013 Word of the Year by the American Dialectic Society. The selection recognized that because is now being used in new ways to introduce a noun, adjective, or other part of speech.  Continue reading →

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Dec 15 2013
Posts

Conversations w/My Next Girlfriend: Episode 3

Dear Next Girlfriend,

First, I want to apologize for not staying in touch. This is such a busy time of year with family gatherings, work parties, get-togethers with friends and the cooking, baking, shopping, wrapping, gift-exchanging that comes with the holiday season. Last night, I was out on a Saturday night for the first time in a long time to the Madison Area Lesbian Women’s Social Meetup Group Holiday Potluck. Yes, it’s the season for holiday potlucks. The one last night was a good one for many reasons: lots of women I didn’t know (refreshing for a change), good food, and a lively White Elephant gift exchange.  Continue reading →

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Dec 07 2013
3 Comments
Posts

A Gender Journey in Three Vignettes

Preface

This week when beginning to write a piece for my LGBTQ Narratives Activist-Writers group, I was in a fog. The prompt was a broad subject, gender, and in fact I had suggested it. It is a topic that interests me. It’s a dynamic subject, it affects perception, language, challenges assumptions, and forces us to adapt to our changing culture, roles and identities. Continue reading →

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Nov 27 2013
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Thanksgiving: Things Change

Holidays, like the changing seasons or the pages of a calendar recur, and though we often follow rituals and traditions like templates, things change. Two of my favorite quotes address change, the first by the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, “The only constant is change” and the second  by Henry David Thoreau, American author, philosopher and naturalist who wrote in his book Walden, “Things do not change; we change.”  Both, I believe are true. Continue reading →

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