Last night's adventure had all the ingredients of a "buddy" dream, one that often steals elements of different people in real life that I'm attracted to into one amalgam along with the conceit that I've known this person for a long time ( Read more... )

No this isn't another screed against Donald Trump and The White Anxiety Party that supports him. This is about art and the ability to depict white people using means of color. All human beings have skin pigment, the results of thousands of years of migration from Africa where minute cells containing melanin were the evolutionary tool used to ( Read more... )

Sam and I had a two-week break in counseling while I attended my college reunion. Weekends work best for us and things went smoothly for about two or three months. Then, May arrived. Between trips Down South, The Reunion, and Altar Guild scheduling, I think we were able to have only one sit-down, face-to-face session ( Read more... )

Bilbo Baggins is back in town. In fact, the Bagginses are the only three-generation family - from its titular head to his youngest grandson - in regular attendance these days, temporarily eclipsing the Campbells, whose grandchildren haven't been spotted at St. Michael's in years. When all the Bagginses are at table there is barely room for any ( Read more... )

Darryl and my support group met twice on Friday and by the end of the evening we had all developed a good rapport with each other. I don't think it was planned that way, but, somehow, the combination of three geezers and one YA seemed to work well. Darryl is a natural performer and it was natural - perhaps, even a pattern - for him to want to ( Read more... )

This year's Gay Men's workshop started a day earlier than usual which meant that, including the 24 hour pre-workshop for men of color, I was away from home for almost five days. It went remarkably well considering how old and cantankerous I've become over the years ( Read more... )

Anthony's invitation to visit Mary House, the Catholic Worker headquarters on East 3rd Street struck me as a fantastic opportunity to learn something about which I had very little first hand knowledge, a glimpse into the history of The Old Left as it existed in this country from about the end of World War One to the emergence of The New Left at the ( Read more... )

Well, it worked. It took some persistence, but, it worked. I had Anthony on social media long enough to extract what his plans were for the evening and he typed out the name of a synagogue in Greenwich Village where he would be helping celebrate Shabbat services. Then, with an air of finality, he typed that he was going "offline". By the time I ( Read more... )

The moment I woke up I could just tell that Election Day was a legal holiday. Sun was streaming through my bedroom windows. There was none of the sound of doors opening and closing all over the apartment building. I had the distinct feeling that people were sleeping in. Nevertheless, I chose to avoid the morning rush to our polling center and put ( Read more... )

I've just come back from Down South, ostensibly for the annual Chestnut Grove Baptist Church Homecoming, but really to meditate on Death. It's all part of the mourning process, I think. It was weird to look around the service last Sunday and realize, to my chagrin, that almost all my first-cousins are officially listed as "shut-ins". That's how old ( Read more... )