View From Here

From a very young age I was taught that uniqueness is respected in America. Each of us is unique. We have a wide array of talents, ideas, personality traits and appearances. Many of us come from many different lands as well as our ancestors. That was a distinguishing feature of our nation, a home for others who sought a new, a better life. The notion of immigration is really a baseline of American culture. Ours is not one culture, but an amalgam of cultures from all over the planet. We have welcomed people from nearly every nation. Not always a welcoming persona, but we have made a home for those who are not native to our land. Because we are a nation of immigrants, we too, are immigrants somewhere in our family tree. That makes us unique in so many ways. These differences are a strength for our country. We do not have a single viewpoint on all things. We are very apt to see things differently in every setting. It makes for interesting conversations, but also for amazing inventions...

I am a member of a widows and widowers grief group. My case recognizes husband Rocky’s death 2 years ago July 23, 2023. Alone, this experience has taught me about loss, loneliness, lack of hugs, pats and kisses. There is much more than that to be learned as well. In the midst of this, I just learned a few days ago that my ex-wife has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It has already spread, of course, the very nature of this specific cancer. Doctors have suggested a prognosis of 90 days. Another loss is in the making. In this case, we were married nearly 26 years, remained amiable for the last 30 years plus the years before we were married. All in all, we have known each other for 58 years. As expected, our kids are hurting. Grief comes in many colors and shapes. Each is heavy in its own right. All of it teaches lessons we would rather not learn, at least in this manner. Yes, death is inevitable, but it is also painful. One of my granddaughters once disturbed by a death in the family, as...

Losses : recent years have involved the loss of friends and loved ones. Too many. Most concerning, the beat goes on, and on. I recall something my mother said to me many years ago when she was in her mid-70’s; she lamented the deaths of friends, church members, neighbors and siblings. She knew this was the journey of aging, and more because she lived in an age restricted community. She realized the reality of death in all of life. That realization is coming home to my roost as family and friends pass from this life. Each loss, of course, is personal and meaningful. Some we weather well, others not so much. Yet it is the reality of life, its beginnings and ends, we struggle with. Not so much our own end. Somehow that retains a mystery but not a pain. Odd that. But natural. Just not so for others. It is the loss we feel and must accommodate. Unnatural and painful.   At a Loss : reading the news is a daily assault on reason and comity. What we grew up respecting and acting mannerl...

Real or imagined, the trump regime doesn’t like opinions or news articles that don’t support their point of view. They battle such by lawsuit, regulatory shutdowns within an industry (public broadcasting stations and networks) and pointed public attacks. Stephen Colbert being cancelled by CBS is one example. Others jump to mind. Trump’s constant belittling of CNN is an example of public attacks. Lawsuits of endless timelines have long been a tactic of trump. And the tactic has worked, even against big pocket corporations who don’t want to be bothered by the time it takes to defend itself, plus the money it demands. PBS and NPR were created to expand reporting of facts and events to add to understanding the world and its many contexts. Like education and its research to expand society’s knowledge base, facts are the basis of all truth. Things are what they are, comfortable or not. Later, with more information from research and study, we arrive at other conclusions that further expand ...

A friend and I were talking. We spoke about organizations and leadership. We mentioned direction and nurturing people to push together in the same direction for the good of the organization. Roles played by some, titles fluffed without much substance, and decisions made in concert by boards of directors and senior management teams. All for what? That was what we continuously asked ourselves. What were they doing, and why? Each saw a reason, but it wasn’t shared with others. Teams of people feeling differently about the same data yet coming to different conclusions. We discussed this further and finally landed on this: a board of directors’ job is to discern the direction of the organization and set into place decisions and policies that would bring about the future that direction would build. Direction, steering, finding a route or way to the future. That was the role of the board of directors. The future. What it was. How it was defined. Why it was logical and a result of the pr...

Along with perhaps 100 million other Americans, I’m grappling with what it means to have our democracy imperiled to the nth degree. Courts responding in a somewhat timely manner, but then upset by the Supreme Court, or the Supreme Court making a decision that narrows the matter so much as to be marginally important. In other words, grave doubts have appeared suggesting the Supreme Court is not doing its full job. That’s one third of the tripartite form of government our constitution provides. The other two, Legislative Branch, and Executive Branch, are already in play and control of MAGA. If their control is not overturned by the next set of elections, then our system of government is pretty much toast. The Executive branch may be headed by Trump, but his minions in the White House and Executive Office Building are doing the primary work. He doesn’t understand it well enough to actually do the work; that’s for others to do. But if we remove him from the White House, problems will r...

Supply and Demand : the basis of all economic activity is the awareness of need, asking for a supply to meet that need, and the reverse process of actually realizing the market has needs that bring rise to manufacturing and assembly. Housing is a universal demand we all have. Know who needs what, where and when is just one aspect of this activity. How much it will cost, who can afford how much at what level of quality and attractiveness, are more complicated aspects of the same activity. Design, engineering, materials, sourcing and transportation of same adds to the complexity. Sourcing materials may be local, regional, national or international. More complexity. Meeting someone’s demand for service or product requires acquisition of knowledge, expertise and materials. All of these processes require careful management. It takes discipline, professionalism and planning to maintain a system of smooth supply and demand. Supply Chain : this is where buyers and sellers meet up among busin...

There are times, moments really, when I am reminded of something far back in time. My time, that is. Like when I was five or six years old. The other day something reminded me of a moment in Altadena, California. I was playing outdoors, across the street. Standing in front of the Bernards home, I was looking east. New York Drive was mostly deciduous trees in that direction, but the continued columns of tall palm trees lined the street for miles. The other direction, toward the west, the palms were interspersed with large pine trees, 20 to 40 feet high. Over my left shoulder was our house. Behind it were the San Gabriel mountains. Ever present to me, they had become every day and not especially noticed. To visiting cousins, they were giant piles of dirt. They lived in Minnesota so anything, but flatland was expected. I don’t recall what brought this memory to mind. But I could almost smell and feel the southern California air. I began recounting the names of the families that lived ne...

Facts abound. They are literally everywhere, even the ones we don’t understand. But other facts are available to help us understand the ones we don’t. And so it goes, life moving amid billions of facts only a few of which we can deal with at any one time. Senses abound as well. Touch is one, so are smell, pressure, temperature, vision, hearing and so much more. Feeling, not related to touch, but in the emotional sense. I feel elated at times, happy, joyous and so forth. At other times I feel lonely, bored, sad, and grief. In fact, thinking on it for just a few minutes, I’m not sure I can name all the emotional senses I feel from time to time. Same with you? Dread is one of those feelings. Wonder and worry combined gives me the sense of dread. What will the unknown present to me to live with and solve? What legislation and ideologies will attack my peace of mind? Which religious tenet will calm my roiled feelings? Or not? Control is another feeling. Am I sufficiently knowledgeable...

How many of us have recognized the outstanding weather we have enjoyed in Illinois these past few years? Mild winters to start with, warm and gentle springs as well, and then fall seasons with slowly chilling temps while leaves display their rainbow hues. That leaves summer to ponder. Warm to be sure, but not violent storms. Some heat spells but none so long as to brown the lawns. Greenery remains green and flowers brighten our landscapes. Beautiful summer months to enjoy. I know I spend most days indoors, being retired has eliminated the mandatory commuting and regional travels. But even then, I volunteered to provide free consulting and mentoring of small and nonprofit businesses. COVID demanded we learn about Zoom and use it. I did, and continued to avoid commuting. That lifestyle allowed me to enjoy the bad weather without pain or exposure. The working population couldn’t do that, so bad weather remained in your experience zone and you would know better than I how much bad we...

Sunday last on the way home from church, the car developed a problem and died. I had just enough warning to pull off onto the shoulder and get out of traffic. We called Toyota for a tow, and they connected us with AAA. They knew exactly where we were located via cellphone and directed the truck to our exact location. I called my daughter for a ride home. She arrived before the tow truck and took Pam and I and my rollator aboard for the ride back to the condo building. The tow truck appeared minutes later and took the car to my Toyota dealership. I have never been stranded due to my car’s breakdown. Never in my full life at 82. That’s a good record but it caused me to think on this for many hours. The dealer contacted me Monday and spent hours diagnosing the problem and arriving at a suggested repair. I approved the plan and awaited notice that the car was ready for pick up. On Wednesday morning, it was ready. Pam took me to the dealer to reclaim the auto. The cost: $137 for towing;...

If ever there has been a 4 th of July in my lifetime to not celebrate, this is the one. Staring me in the face. Celebration? For life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Hardly! Today, we face censorship, a threat to peaceable assembly, freedom of speech, equal access to education, housing and food. Then there is access to healthcare, too. All under threat. In the land of the free and the land of the brave.  Today our enemy is ignorance. Today our enemy is vengeance. Cruelty is part of the scene as well. Maybe a little violence as well. Payback time in the minds of too many. Discrimination against others different from you? Is this what we are now living? If not you, who? If not we, who? We are a nation of immigrants including our very selves. That is America’s unique history. Unless we are of indigenous people of American soil, we are immigrants. Each of us brings a different talent, idea, energy and value to our midst. This makes for an amazing population capable of r...

Yes, it is in question. Is the Supreme Court acting supreme? I think not. First, timeliness. It took too long for the court to actively engage the Trump administration in its chaos. Second, decisions have been slow to emerge. Third, too many decisions are narrowly accepting questionable legal thinking in favor of Trump administration actions. Fourth, the chaos of Trump is now magnified by the actions of the Supreme Court. Fifth, the court is clearly politicized. The Constitution as the foundation of our nation’s laws, is quivering. Not a solid, but a Jello-like foundation. That is not a proper foundation. It should be firm, unshakable. These points should be enough to question the court’s validity. The constitution clearly mandates three equal branches of government. Under the Trump regime, Congress is clearly compromised. The House of Representatives is under a slim MAGA control currently, and the Senate is also slimly controlled by MAGA. If they remain in lock step with T...