Things change, people change, it is inevitable. Sometimes we have to let go of something or someone we love because change has left the person, place or thing harmful to our wellbeing or incompatible with our beliefs. We had our last dinner at the Depot... Continue
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Life can be a punishing experience, and difficulties often happen without advance notice. Aging, sickness and death await us all, the foundational elements of myriad forms of suffering. When things get really bad, inevitably the question arises: is life worth living? I am physically materialist,... Continue
I recently found out about a plan submitted for the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). This plan is the Campus Project. It proposes to use many of the smaller existing buildings for cooperative housing. Think of the small buildings that look very much like homes. The... Continue
Couples come into my office fighting, shutting down, or giving up. They fear rejection, walk on eggshells, live with longing, frustration, crabbiness, compromise or stonewalling, arguing about who’s right or wrong while yearning for harmony. I’m both honored and humbled to witness moments of repair... Continue
Homelessness is not a new issue for the Sonoma Valley; indeed, there have been countless meetings both public and behind the scenes about how exactly to provide shelter, food and services to our unhoused and housing insecure residents in Sonoma and the surrounding areas, and... Continue
Chapter 21: Letter from my mother (age 26) to my father’s sister living in Minnesota: Watsonville, Cal. Nov. 22, 1941 Dear Amelia and all: I started working in an apple dryer here the first of September and got through the day before Thanksgiving. I don’t mind... Continue
The steadfast commitment of President Biden to actually follow through on the withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 futile years of pointless war was an act of political courage that is rare in this era. Biden did not run on this issue, even though it might... Continue
When I saw the movie Reefer Madness for the first time in 1967, I had no idea of what was being said. The movie was part of a light show at Dana Hall. It was projected along with undulating, lava lamp-like blobs of color, random... Continue
As the speed of change accelerates, our sense of time becomes distorted; we barely have time to coalesce memories before they are displaced by new events. In this way, history becomes lost, swept into a bubbling froth of social and personal transformation. So too our... Continue
What we say to each other can destroy relationships. But sometimes it’s the things unsaid that kill connection – words that sit like stale, unspoken resentments or fears in the thick space of silences. I started detaching from my mom because I thought that “setting... Continue