If you’re casting about for a way to take the edge off Trump’s wrecking ball, I heartily recommend the uplifting powers of a great...
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Being 76
GUEST POST by EILEEN GRIFFIN I did not welcome my seventieth decade. With the arrival of my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and even the 60s, I crossed each threshold with relief or anticipation or calm acceptance, but always ready. Not so with the 70s. On my 70th birthday, I wanted to open the door and holler “Go away, scat, you have the wrong house.” [...]
Pat Taub
Obituary: The Final Writing Assignment
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL I’ve typed up many others’ documents in my time, but the single page printed in a strange reddish ink was a first for me: my father-in-law’s self-written obituary. This record of his life was too important to him to leave to others to put together. Robert “Bob” Weil was a gentleman of the old school, and [...]
Pat Taub
New Beginnings: Life Post-Lockdown
Spring’s arrival, with its warming temperatures, is perfectly timed with the gradual re-opening of our country. Many of us have now received both vaccination shots, allowing us to step into the outside world to make travel plans, tentatively dine indoors and exchange hugs with reunited loved ones. While initially the lockdown was a big jolt [...]
Pat Taub
Flexible Problem Solving in the Age of Covid
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE As the mother of three grown children, I’ve had occasion to reflect on what I taught them that might be especially useful for weathering an ongoing public health crisis and the recession it caused. I became a public school teacher halfway through their childhood but even before that I was an “education mama” [...]
Pat Taub
Texas Storm, Molly Ivins, Granddaughter Jane & More
Storm-Wrecked Texas Looking at photos of Texans, standing in the bitter cold, huddled under blankets, forming long lines for water and food, left me furious and heartsick. Have we become a third world country, where only the privileged are taken care of? The one redeeming factor to the Texas storm tragedy is that Ted Cruz was caught flying [...]
Pat Taub
Last Things, New Beginnings
GUEST POST by BARBARA BENGELS Do you remember what you were doing (or planning to do) when Covid shut down the world as we knew it? Were you teaching a class, standing in line at the supermarket, planning on seeing a play? Those were my plans; they’re still undone. How do we respond when taken-for-granted opportunities vanish? Well, [...]
Pat Taub
RIP Cicely Tyson, Vaccine, Sundance Film Festival & More!
Cicely Tyson Cicely Tyson, one of the greatest actresses of all time, died on January 28th at the age of 96. She refused to take parts that demeaned Black people and won a Tony, Emmys and, at 93, an honorary Oscar. I will always remember Cicely for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman about a woman born into slavery, who lived to join [...]
Pat Taub
Trump Exits & Biden Enters, Amanda Gorman, Remembering my Mother & More!
Trump FINALLY exits! I breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, as Trump flew off to Mar a Lago and Biden took the oath of office. His speech for unity was critical, but words alone won’t unify us. If the Biden administration can lift people out of poverty through a generous stimulus plan, health care for all, and a jobs program, than [...]
Pat Taub
My Soul-Full Family Holiday
GUEST POST by CAROLE LESKIN This is how I imagined it. Once Upon a Time, long, long ago, there was nothing but Darkness. A color so black it has never been seen again. And there was silence. It had been that way forever. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, millions of tiny lights, brighter than the brightest diamonds appeared. They danced in the [...]
Pat Taub
Snow, Deb Haaland, Xmas Memories & More!
SNOW! My city of Portland, Maine was on track to receive 6” of snow but we got 17!” This morning I took one look at my buried car and went back inside. Once it warms up, I will tackle all the snow covering it. My heart goes out to all the unhoused in this bitter weather. I learned of two unhoused who died this week. It makes my heart [...]
Pat Taub