Many of us are feeling like we’ve been plunged into a spiral of dark news. Daily we are deluged with stories of large-scale migrant...
Films to Raise Your Spirits
Many of us are feeling like we’ve been plunged into a spiral of dark news. Daily we are deluged with stories of large-scale migrant deportations, abduction of students who peacefully protested for Gaza, mean-spirited cuts in critical [...]
Pat Taub
family10
Courage Reimagined
The story of women journalists in Gaza requires a new definition of courage. Many of these women are under 30. Several are young mothers. Daily they risk their lives to document the horrors of the escalating genocide in Gaza. Last year, Israeli bombs killed five women journalists in 24 hours. It’s difficult for most Westerners to [...]
Pat Taub
Do You Suffer From Play Amnesia?
The cartoonist, Lynda Barry, contends that most adults suffer from “play amnesia.” Living in these dark times, many overlook play as a valuable resource to diffuse stress and lighten one’s mood. For example, when your news feed becomes too much to take in, take a break, and turn to humorous writing, like Dorothy Parker or The New [...]
Pat Taub
Missing Meaningful Connections?
I feel sad and misunderstood among family and friends who dismiss my deep despair over the genocide in Gaza. Several friends are down in the dumps over their disconnections with adult children, who hold grudges against them, or who simply don’t make time for them. Thousands of Americans are angry over Trump’s cuts to essential living benefits, [...]
Pat Taub
Can I Live Without Email?
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “It is possible that you do not receive many emails at all, in which case I am very jealous…” “A Simpler Guide to Gm@il by Ceri Clark “Could I live without email?” The question popped into my head as I was perusing “how to” computer books in the library. Why would I even think of such a thing? I first [...]
Pat Taub
Aging – consciously, generously? ~ No, aging fiercely
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI “Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate; I grow more intense with age.” ~ Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell, playwright, author, psychologist; d. 1979 May Sarton asked, ‘What is the opposite of “growing old?” [...]
Pat Taub
Struggling to Find Balance In A Deeply Troubling World
Chaos is a seductress, but peace is the real power.—Diamond-Michael Scott Chris Hedges, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, contends that Trump is intentionally creating chaos to unmoor us and advance his oligarchy agenda. The more we are stuck in shock and awe, the easier it is for Trump to advance his Right-wing agenda. Caitlin Johnstone [...]
Pat Taub
“A Life in Light,” Mary Pipher’s Memoir
As we enter a new year punctuated with images of wars, climate emergencies and the alarming prospect of a Trump presidency poised to threaten our civil liberties, Mary Pipher’s memoir “A Life in Light,” is a beacon of hope. Pipher offers personal examples, honed through a lifetime of beating back darkness, to discover light and resilience. [...]
Pat Taub
Home Alone
If you live alone, if your family is scattered far and wide, if you recently lost a partner or spouse, if you can’t afford the plane fare to visit family or to enjoy a holiday escape, you may be feeling miserable and lonely, making you a prime candidate for the holiday blues. No one wants to feel left out, but don’t fall prey to [...]
Pat Taub
Admit! Adapt! Adjust! Accept!
GUEST POST by MARY LOU SMITH I will be turning eighty-five in January. I work hard trying to admit, adjust, adapt, and accept what I can do. Easier said than done at times! I am an independent, active, creative and compassionate woman who left a forty-three-year abusive marriage in 2005 at the age of sixty-five. I have never looked back. [...]
Pat Taub
What Will Our Priorities Be?
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI I woke up Thanksgiving morning thinking of Picasso’s astounding and revolutionary masterpiece, “Guernica.” It depicts horrors in the Spanish Civil War. What would you see if he painted, “Thanksgiving 2024?” In the US: 700,000 unhoused waiting in soup kitchen lines. 37 million in poverty, many [...]
Pat Taub