Entwining

I read a book. I eat a good meal. I travel with my family. I dig into a challenging task at work. I take a walk in nature. Which of these things bring me happiness? Which create joy?  The relationship between these two emotions is a complicated one. There are experiences that bring me happiness,…

There are 55 days until the election on November 3, 2020. 55 days to shift the outcome, to change the narrative. This is not just about Trump. This is about moving our national story toward one of community, of support, of justice. What can we each do in those 55 days? We must answer that…

This essay is a remix of some of the ideas I pondered earlier in my series of essays: Racial development, Antiracist white identity, Racial agency, and Antiracist competencies.  I grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the white son of white parents -- a teacher and an engineer. My parents, my sister, and I…

As humans, our brains are attuned to expect the worst. This adaptation has helped us thrive in the world as it is. We look for the negative effect, the deficit, the problem that needs addressing so that we can survive. We also have developed a tremendous intellect, an ability to manipulate abstract information, to extrapolate…

Store windows were smashed. Merchandise was stolen. Black people were blamed. "This won't help their cause," white people said. "I support Black Lives Matter, I'm against looting, and I support good cops," white people said. "When will this chaos be over?" white people said.  We white people always have a way of twisting things around…

Last August, I had an encounter with a cicada and recorded my thoughts in this blog. With the return of the cicadas this summer, here are my thoughts on another encounter.  As we walked through the yard outside our building, we noticed a cicada shell hanging from a tree branch. We had noticed a number…

It is the first day of school, 2020. This year has not been like other years. This school year will not be like other school years. Jonathan is a sophomore in high school, and his freshman year was upturned by the arrival of the coronavirus, which shuttered his school, as it did schools across the…

In the early evening light, a brilliant monarch butterfly alights on the purple milkweed flowers in our yard. It drinks, rises up, flits through the air, and lands to drink again. As the sun drops toward the horizon, the butterfly floats away and the cicadas begin to whine. Their humming starts quietly, crescendoing gradually. As…