I speak, but I don't know who is listening. I am here, but I don't know who is watching. I look, but I don't know what I'm seeing. I listen, but I don't know who I'm hearing. I act because I believe in humanity. I act because I believe in human beings. I act because human beings are…
Words as the building blocks of empathy
Words have the power to hurt. Words have the power to heal. We imbue them with the power to communicate our thoughts and feelings, the ability to influence and inspire, the elasticity to impact both in the here and now as well as across space and time. Because we are each individual beings, there is…
Property taxes and equity in Oak Park
This post also appears -- in much the same form -- as a column in the local Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. It is that time of year again, the time when the cold winds of winter start to blow, the time when some of us celebrate the holidays, and the time when our local…
Entwining: What is this blog?
When I was a child, I spent a lot of time feeling guilty for what I had that other people did not, and wondering about my responsibility for addressing the problems of others and of the planet. During high school, I volunteered at a homeless shelter. I was obsessive about not littering, turning off the…
Giving thanks
I give thanks for the guidance that comes to me unbidden. I give thanks for fear, because it pushes me to explore the limits of what I can and cannot do. I give thanks for boredom, because it is the ground from which my inspiration grows. I give thanks for guilt, because it reminds me…
Healing in paradox
"I want to try my bike without training wheels, but I can't. I’m too afraid,” my daughter said. I tried to reassure her: “It’s normal to feel afraid. I feel afraid sometimes too. Do you still want to do it?” “Yes, but I can’t,” she replied. “When you’re afraid,” I said, “You can be brave.…
Not a symbol, but a self
Throughout life, death visits us in many forms. I wrote recently about how I relate to thoughts of my own death. And I, like all of us, have had to deal with the deaths of close family and friends in the past, and I will again. I have been one of the fortunate ones, because…
Antimatter
Listen to "Antimatter" here. White and Black defined in opposition to the other, Each of them inverted on itself so we can cover Up the lies we tell about ourselves we’d rather not admit‘Cause they contradict the truths that we think fit. Like matter and antimatter, White and Black are mirror images.Helping us hide clearer images…
A slender hope
When I was 11 or so, I started to imagine the unimaginable. For a stretch of time, I would wake up every day contemplating my own death. Not the manner of it, or how old I would be when it happened, but the fact of it. It was a tension in my chest, a tightness…
Removing this president is just the first step
The president visited Chicago this past Monday, as thousands of people turned out to protest his first return to the city since his campaign and impeachment hearings picked up speed in the House. I wish I could have been out there protesting on Monday, and I support every effort to remove this president. He has…
Entwining 