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Dreams

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Greetings from Regensburg, Germany where my daughter Sarah and I are taking a Viking Cruise! Since I've made a commitment to post each and every Saturday morning, I thought I'd share a piece I wrote in 1986 which on the one hand, feels like a lifetime ago, and yet it's as relevant for me today as it was then.   Dreaming My Way Towards Clarity I dream that I am frozen on a road leading towards a mountain. The road is smooth and white with yellow daffodils along the edge. Pink cosmos fills the fields. The day is warm and sunny but I cannot enjoy it. I cannot move. A blue bird flutters above my head, beckoning me towards the top of the mountain that glistens, starlike. My feet refuse to move. Six smooth statues sit on the road beside me, holding me tight. One is alabaster, smooth and shaped like a huge oval. The second is translucent with dark veins and fan like edges. Another a deep lapis carved into a bird. The next is green marble and perches on two points. At the road'...
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This and That

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Sometimes I think I should wind down, relax more, chill. But the truth is, I'm not happy if I don't have ideas piled up on my desk, waiting for me to pay attention to them. Last year, I redid the ALS Worldwide website. Not because I actually wanted to, but because it was ten years old and the original designer told me it could crash which forced me to review everything in order to create a sleek, easy to navigate website. Now that it's finished, I love its ease and beauty. Then I consolidated all of the information that was crowded onto dozens of website pages into a book, Pathways Through the ALS Storm. It contains everything Steve and I learned about ALS in a wire bound book that's easy for patients to maneuver. I've shipped quite of few copies, but not enough to satisfy me. If our donation drive this year is fruitful, I'll be shipping copies to many neurologists so they can keep copies in their waiting rooms. Now, I'm writing a novel - an historical fict...
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Park Bully

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The last time I published this story was 3 weeks before the 2020 presidential election, when we were all holding our collective breath, hoping Biden would win. And he did! Like a bad dream, Trump has come back into our lives, holding court, destroying the White House, chopping off heads, ruining thousands of lives just because he feels like it. He's a grown up version of Eddie. So here it is again, I hope for the last time. One year down, three to go unless the entire country has had enough of his bullying and can figure out a way stop him. Park Bully Eddie is the park bully at age four. He throws sand, squishes castles, pinches arms, pushes babies and ignores his mother's pleas to be a good boy.  Bad boy Eddie is the scapegoat of Goudy playground, the source of all angst, beyond control and blamed for any bad behavior that the other children exhibit. No one intervenes or supports this family.  Instead, we whisper maliciously behind Eddie's mom's back and wish they woul...
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Appreciating Differences

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 Many years ago, I took a course on culture when I was getting a masters degree in early childhood development. The focus was learning to appreciate differences, not just tolerate them, an idea that has so many implications. So what does that mean exactly? In the US, there are so many opportunities, it's hard to keep track of them all. Foods, Holidays, Religions, Rituals, Clothing. We're surrounded by amazing ways to embrace and enjoy our differences.  We have Italians to thank for pizza which has become a weekly staple in most households, a delicious dish that no one had heard of until after WWll. Tacos, empanadas, sushi, stir fry, hamburgers and french fries are just a few of our favorites which were imported by immigrants who came to this country to find a better life for themselves. We've all enriched our daily lives because of their pioneering spirit. But there's so much more. If you've ever been to an East Indian wedding, you know what an amazing experience th...
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