Butter chicken for dinner tonight — yum! It’s in the crockpot and starting to make the house smell delicious. Combined with the fact that it’s…
Continue ReadingMy esprit de l’escalier, part 1
There is a French term I love: esprit de l’escalier. It translates literally as “wit of the stairs,” and means roughly “the concise and clever…
Continue ReadingStruggling with defining personal ethics
Some years ago I had a friend with whom I lunched on a weekly basis. At that time he was on a job team that…
Continue ReadingWandering Thoughts on Feminism
Because of the field of study I’m in, the definition of the word feminism is of powerful personal importance. I’m always faintly surprised at the…
Continue ReadingCommunity Service Personal Reflection Journal
Most of my journaling for this class has already been posted here, in Collie’s Bestiary. However, in perusing the syllabus for this class, I re-read…
Continue Reading“Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently” by Medicine Story, pt. 2
In a fascinating storytelling style, Medicine Story shares the startlingly successful program he and various other Native American elders created to assist incarcerated men. Initially…
Continue Reading“Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently” by Medicine Story, pt. 1
Ending Violent Crime Cheaply & Permanently: A Vision of A Society Free of Violence by Manitonquat (Medicine Story) is an astonishing little book — one…
Continue Reading“The Next American Revolution” by Boggs & Kurashige
After reading The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs & Scott Kurashige, I confess my primary reaction was a…
Continue Reading“Unbowed: A Memoir” by Wangari Maathai, pt. 2
Being a child of the US, I’ve only seen online, rather than face-to-face, the types of deeply vicious and misogynistic attacks which Maathai describes: [C]ertain…
Continue Reading“Unbowed: A Memoir” by Wangari Maathai, pt. 1
There is a phrase that’s apparently become popular on Twitter conversations where someone wishes to point out unconscious privilege: they state that the issue under…
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