There's a NY Times video showing the timeline of what went down on the evening George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis. It's illuminating because it starts with a complaint from a corner convenience store clerk. Apparently Floyd had just been in there and used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Floyd was drunk or altered in some way and when he ( Read more... )

Yesterday in the gym the director of the YMCA asked me how people are handling the changes to charitable deductions. I had to share my despair. "I feel like I'm kicking them in the gut."  This is going to be catastrophic to charities, and none-to-good for the humans who are my clients ( Read more... )

The sermon in church today was mostly about whales and God's relation to Job (creator, full stop), but the children's sermon today was about this hymn, and indirectly about the slaughter of innocents in a synogogue in Pittsburgh yesterday. The minister started out talking about how they were killed in a sanctuary, but said that it isn't realy the ( Read more... )

We had a community-wide conversation about homelessness this summer when someone realized that the town common was available by right for anyone who wanted to camp there. It didn't have bathroom facilities after the bus station (nearby) closed, but was within a block of the YMCA for showers and the Library as a place to hang in the day. A bunch of ( Read more... )

I'm not a democrat. I swear I am not. I'm not a republican, either. I'm somewhere in the middle, economically conservative but socially liberal. I get along well with Libertarians, but not White Supremacists. I'm a feminist, and also in favor of a well-regulated militia (which we do NOT currently have.) I don't have a party, but that's okay, I'm ( Read more... )

I grew up thinking that George Jetson's future was right around the corner. Surely the screens and cellphones are here. We've got the robot maid now, and the moving floors, video newspapers, video phone calls. Oops, the wife is still a housewife, though. But possibly most disappointing of all, the flying cars just aren't here ( Read more... )

One of the things that is weird about my Small Town is that we seem to be a sort of Jimmy Stewart version of America. History plays out across our canvas as if we're all living a Forest Gump life. Last night, for example, I met the current Nobel Peace Prize recipient, a famous singer, and my former congressman at an event. During the course of the ( Read more... )

A psychologist I listen to once said that children take up the tasks that their parents left undone. If your parents didn't learn kindness, you pick up that task and figure it out, for example ( Read more... )

I've been listening in on a blog called "Black Girl in Maine". Most of the time it's helpful to hear another perspective: I had no idea that being black in Maine was so hard. But they know, and by listening I can learn ( Read more... )

Most of my clients want to invest in "socially responsible" funds. I need to smooth out my answer to this. I still haven't found a really good conversation about this anywhere in my industry even though I've tried from various times ( Read more... )