So, how has your life been after a year of pandemic standstill? While our family is managing okay and feeling fortunate in the grand scheme, it’s our daughters’ experience that pains me the most. One is a senior in high school, missing the activities that bring her the most joy—theatre, singing in the choir, hanging out regularly with her friends. And our younger daughter entered a new high school where most of the kids already know each other, and where online school makes it difficult to build any meaningful connections or friendships. It pretty much sucks for them, yet we know it could be much worse. We also know we will look back at this strange, highly charged time as pivotal in the ongoing quest to change the world for the better.
Perspective
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One could say that America was born from rage and grows from rage. I learned that firsthand at the Women’s March four years ago, when my country was mired in…
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Earlier this week, an intense windstorm knocked out our power for several hours. Today is the third day of an orange sky casting an eerie pall over Portland, as wildfire…
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Funny how fiction and reality often merge. Each reflects the other, no matter how much time passes between when a story was written and when a person interprets it. Such…
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A vicious catch-22 frustrates the hell out of me, particularly as a mother of daughters: we need more leaders who are women and people of color, but this doesn’t happen…
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Raise your hand if you think the main purpose of school is to get a good job. Okay, now raise your hand if you think the main purpose of school…
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The heavy Florida humidity filtered through the air conditioner outside Sister Margaret Mary’s office. My labored asthmatic breath left me in a position to simply observe the goings-on of the…
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The cheers in the stairway reverberated off the walls, giving us goosebumps as we waited to ascend into Scuola Mazzini in Genoa, Italy. It wasn’t easy to have all eyes…
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What is Becoming Better People? I’ve previously shared the motive behind this blog and how I intend to use it. Here’s a recap: Becoming Better People is a platform for personal…
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Becoming Better as a New National Narrative Deep down I’ve always been an optimist. Despite plenty of reasons to focus on the negative, the gradual trajectory toward “better” in my…