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Read "The English-Only Rule"

5/6/2022

Thoughts on mothers, children and absolution

This time, a story for your Mother’s Day consideration. In “Absolution,” a priest’s elderly mother—near death and apparently suffering a bout of dementia—doesn’t know her own son. But she recognizes the visitor in her hospice room as a priest, and asks him to hear her confession.

Curious as we may be about important parts of our parents’ lives, would any of us really want to know their sins? The priest doesn’t, and tries everything he can think of to avoid it.

But as the mother grows agitated, the priest ultimately agrees. “…how could [he] deny this comfort, perhaps her last request?”

I hope you’ll read the story and I won’t spoil it by telling what the mother confesses…other than noting that it’s nothing awful. A theologian might even say it barely rises to the level of a sin.

Isn’t that the way, sometimes? Things we most regret may seem unimportant or even trivial to others. But they can haunt us. Weigh us down. Even shape the nature of a relationship.

The mother seems to come out of dementia at the end of her confession.

Or was it dementia, at all?

Even authors don’t know everything about the characters they create. As I wrote the story it occurred to me that maybe the mother recognized the priest from the beginning. That maybe feigning dementia was a cover, a way to tell her son something and apologize without having to answer other questions.

What do you think?

By the way, the mother in this story—Hania—is the same person you may recall from “The English-Only Rule.” In that story, which takes place decades earlier, you’ll also meet some of the other people Hania mentions during her confession.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! Especially to my wife, mother-in-law, and daughter-in-law.

And to my own Mom, no longer with us, who I particularly miss at this time of year.

Read "Absolution"

5/2/2022

Customer service rant number…

well, I’ve lost count

I don’t love automated attendants that screen customer service calls, but I’m not entirely against them. Sometimes, a faceless, soulless entity is all I need.

But if the matter is something I already know will require human intervention, things get challenging. Take my internet company. (Please!) There was a recurring problem for which, from past experience, I knew the attendant would eventually have to hand off to a person.

Try as I might, I couldn’t skip the time-consuming menu of irrelevant choices. Shouting “representative” didn’t work, so I postulated that silence might get me out of the loop. Nope. The attendant simply said goodbye and hung up. The clear message: The internet company’s way, or forget the information highway.

Websites can be an adventure, too.

Buying something is pretty easy. But anything else, no matter how basic, can be an adventure. For instance, the link for a simple change in personal information may be under something like “my account.” Straightforward enough, but often in tiny type and camouflaged among a dozen unrelated options.

Or maybe I’ll have to hunt for an icon resembling a faceless human being. Or some icon or wording unique to that particular site. I could look for a customer service phone number. But those are often pretty well hidden, too. And, as noted above, calling has its own set of frustrations.

Here’s the thing. Since virtually all organizational call centers and websites are constructed along similar lines, I can’t simply switch to a competitor for a better experience.

So I’m stuck.

We all are.

Back to phone service for one final, (non-curmudgeonly) note. The humans I have been able to speak with are almost always polite—often even friendly. They know how to do their jobs. And even when they can’t take care of what I want them to, they give it their best shot.

Those folks didn’t invent this system and they’re in no position to change it.

So, frustrated as we may be when we finally are able to reach another sentient being, let’s treat them like the humans they are.

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4/14/2022

Trifecta of mixed messages:

What does it mean?

News Item 1: President Biden signs a bill to make lynching a federal crime.

The law defines “lynching” as not only the taking of a life, but also serious bodily injury. From soon after the Civil War to the present, lynching or threat of lynching has been used to enforce the racial social order. It’s about time the nation recognized and outlawed lynching as the hate crime it is. The tragedy is that it took Congress a century-and-a-half to take action.

News Item 2: Senate confirms first Black woman as Supreme Court justice.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will not only be the first Black woman to serve on the court—she is the first Black woman ever even to be nominated. But during her hearing, a number of senators failed to treat this distinguished jurist with anything like the respect she deserved. Some of it probably was politics. But there was plenty of senatorial behavior that smacked of racism.

News Item 3: Another White cop kills an unarmed Black man.

Grand Rapids, MI police released videos on Wednesday showing a White officer fatally shooting unarmed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, after a struggle during a traffic stop. An investigation the New York Times conducted last fall “revealed that American police officers, over the previous five years, had killed more than 400 motorists who were not wielding a gun or knife or under pursuit for a violent crime.” At least in this instance, Michigan wasted no time in launching an independent investigation, with Governor Gretchen Whitmer announcing “a transparent, independent investigation of the shooting.” Let’s hope so.

So where does that leave us? A new law outlaws a hate crime that should have been outlawed long ago. Confirmation of a Black woman to the Supreme Court, but far too long in coming and only after she endured baseless personal attacks. And another police killing of a Black man, hopefully to be fully and quickly investigated.

Are we making progress against racism? Maybe.

But not nearly fast enough.

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Read "the Truth about Truth"

3/30/2022

Parents, children and grievance

In the featured story, “The Truth about Truth,” a mother reads an email in which her adult daughter litigates a grievance from long ago.

Has anyone reached adulthood without acquiring at least some grievance against a parent? Some are egregious and fully warranted. But for those of us who grew up with parents who always tried to be their best selves, some are iffy at best.

Here’s the thing: Parents have grievances against their children, too.

My late father repeatedly reminded me about the time I had colic as a baby. I cried a lot, which deprived both my parents of sleep. As grievances go, kind of iffy. But there you have it.

On the other hand, as an adult I made any number of smart-ass comments to my father. I intended them to be amusing, but I bet more than a few of them stung.

Which which were the stingers, and which rolled off his back? I dunno.

I probably did or said things that hurt my mother, too. But I’m not even sure I recall the things that pained her most.

I once thought I’d identified something worthy of an apology. When I was an older teen my mother kept an eye on my TV viewing, but seldom watched much herself.

The only TV program Mom really looked forward to was on opposite my favorite show. In those days before video recording, you watched a show when it was on, or not at all. I was old enough to understand that sometimes you should just step aside and let others have their way. But I didn’t do that, and Mom didn’t force the issue. She stepped aside.

Decades later, I apologized for that act of selfishness. But Mom said she didn’t remember. Maybe that was true. Or maybe she gave up the hurt or anger or disappointment long ago.

But it’s just as likely that other things I did made my parents feel much more aggrieved. Things I simply put out of my mind, or don’t now recall.

Moms and dads like mine—and maybe yours?—tend not to speak of such things.

My parents have been gone for years, now. But wherever they are, I hope they accept my apology. I’m sorry for hurting them.

Even if I can’t identify how or when or why.

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3/23/2022

Three takeaways from the Ukraine crisis

The invasion of Ukraine hasn’t been the cakewalk that Russia’s Vladimir Putin seems to have expected. And it’s been horrific for the Ukrainians who have fought and died, not to mention the one-quarter of that nation’s population who now are refugees. But that miserable conflict does seem to point to important takeaways, positive and awful.

Nuclear war is thinkable again. I wonder why some folks—me, for instance—imagined that it might be otherwise. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has threatened to use his nation’s nuclear arsenal. But so has North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, perhaps an even more unbalanced national leader. India and Pakistan have nukes, too. Those two nations never have used them, but their rivalry is so deep, so bitter that you never know what might cause one leader or the other to push the button.

It’ll be awhile before another nation dismisses the resolve of the U.S. and its friends. We brought those doubts on ourselves. Too often the past, when red lines were crossed, we tended to shrug or respond in a relatively toothless way. In the instance of Ukraine, President Joe Biden seems to have found a way to get most true democracies on the same page, even as he leverages collective economic clout to retaliate for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While willingness to use economic power may not be an absolute deterrent to other potential aggressors, it should give them pause. Unless, of course, this turns out to be a one-time thing, an approach we abandon in the wake of the next crisis.

Diplomacy is not a game of touch football. Obvious, right? But during the previous administration, U.S. foreign policy had all the consistency and farsightedness of a play the quarterback made up in a huddle. President Biden’s haphazard exit from Afghanistan looked like more of the same. But the president seems to have learned from the mistake. Where Ukraine is concerned, he methodically worked with friendly nations to form a Ukraine reaction strategy everyone could live with and stick by. Keeping everyone on board in the coming weeks and months may be a challenge. Hopefully, Mr. Biden is up to it.

Lord, please let the killing--in Ukraine and everywhere else--end now!

3/13/2022

Sanctions and Fairness

This week, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued his war of aggression against Ukraine, President Biden banned American imports of Russian oil. Another in a series of international economic sanctions, orchestrated in large part by the United States.

Even optimistic experts doubt that such sanctions, in themselves, will end hostilities in Ukraine. But by making global pariahs of Putin and his kleptocrat pals, sanctions do exact an immediate price. And maybe they’ll deter future aggression by Russia and other nations who may be so inclined.

At least for now polls show that Americans—who tend to strongly support Ukraine—also support the oil ban, even if it means higher gasoline prices. No pain, no gain, right?

If only it were that simple.

In this country, much of the pain will be borne by the more than 10% of Americans who live in or near poverty.

They already scrimp to make ends meet, so where will they find money to pay an extra dollar or more per gallon for the gas they need to get to their jobs? Should they skip paying the rent, and risk eviction? Cut back on groceries? Delay medical treatment?

All at a time when the ripple effect of oil and other sanctions is increasing the cost of just about everything.

In other nations, the poverty rate is magnitudes higher than here. For many people in those places, survival itself could be at stake.

Unfair.

And arguably immoral.

Addressing that unfairness, that immorality will require money—buckets of it.

What about financing relief with a tax on people and nations best able to afford it?

You don’t have to say it. I know that ain’t gonna happen.

So it’s up to each of us as individuals. For starters, we can help fund food banks. Social service agencies. International relief organizations. The list could go on.

Six decades ago another American president, John F. Kennedy observed, “For of those to whom much is given much is required.”

Kennedy was quoting Christian scripture, probably because he couldn’t think of better words to express that idea.

Neither can I.

3/5/2022

Yogi was right

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” If he were still with us, he might be having that feeling, well…again.

I know I am.

Take wars of aggression, for instance. I don’t think I’m the only one who figured that stuff had largely ended after World War II. But Russia and its totalitarian leader unstuck that pin, invading the much smaller nation of Ukraine with the apparent intent of annexing some or all of its territory.

Or the Cold War. Russia, China, their vassal states and a few others versus the U.S. and most Western nations. Each side armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy all human life many times over.

That’s back, too.

Referring to a situation at work, a colleague once observed, “This is bad. I’ve seen bad and it looks just like this.

Yup.

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Read "Honest Abe's Two Cents"

2/17/2022

Thoughts on Presidents Day…and a very important book

With Presidents day coming up, it seemed timely to feature “Honest Abe’s Two Cents,” a story about an modern actor who portrays the sixteenth president. I wrote that story some time ago. But I know more now, and if I were writing the story today I think it would be quite different.

To be sure, Lincoln was a great president. But the stories most of us know about him are, at best, only part of the picture.

I recently read “How the Word is Passed,” by Clint Smith. In that book—which I recommend—Mr. Smith tells the rest of the story not only about Lincoln, but also other figures of the period. Armed with facts and backed by research, he pokes holes in blatantly untrue myths that live on today.

For instance, Lincoln often is referred to as “The Great Emancipator.” While he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it’s also a fact that the proclamation did not include enslaved people in four border states that had not joined the Confederacy. Lincoln wanted to keep those states in the Union. Politics, pure and simple.

What did Lincoln think about slavery? It’s more complicated than most Americans believe. He did call the institution a “monstrous injustice.” But Lincoln also said, “…I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people…and I…am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

As Mr. Smith points out in his book, “…Lincoln’s position began to change after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and after he saw two hundred thousand Black solders fight on behalf of the Union.” But he wasn’t always there.

What about the Southern hero, Robert E. Lee, who led the Army of Northern Virginia? In story and legend, he was both a brilliant military commander and a noble human being—maybe even a tragic hero.

But think about it another way. As. Mr. Smith suggests, where's the nobility in leading an army whose primary purpose was to perpetuate the institution of slavery?

Lee himself owned slaves. And, he was not a benevolent master. Mr. Smith quotes a historian as noting, “By 1860, [Lee] had broken up every [slave] family but one on [his] estate” by selling some members away. One slave, part of a group who tried but failed to escape, told of receiving 50 lashes by Lee’s order, followed by brine rubbed into the wounds.

During the war, while white Union prisoners were routinely sent to POW camps, Lee countenanced the summary execution by his men of Black soldiers fighting on the Union side.

Not much heroism in any of that.

Where false myths are concerned, consider the really big lie, the notion of “The Lost Cause.” As Mr. Smith explains, “The Lost Cause… [was a deliberate, coordinated attempt] to recast the Confederacy as something based on family, honor and heritage, rather than what it was, a traitorous effort to extend and expand the bondage of Black people… [through fictions] that appealed to white northerners and southerners alike…"Thos fictions included denying that "the Civil War was ever about slavery, or depicting slavery as a benign or even mutually beneficial institution.”

Take another look at “Gone with the Wind.”

The summaries in this blog are just the tip of the iceberg. Layering fact upon fact, backed by solid research, Mr. Smith does not let White northerners off the hook, or Africans who enslaved and sold other Africans.

History has lessons to teach us. But we can learn the those lessons only if we understand the whole truth.

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2/8/22

At least one company does it right

This isn’t a rant against my internet service provider. But that’s how it’s going to start.

That company increased its monthly rate by three bucks. Unwelcome. But not a gobsmacking amount, or even unexpected. Birds sing. Criminals rob banks. Companies raise prices.

But the way this internet provider did it was sneaky. I’m on auto-pay, so they simply took out the new, higher amount. It was up to me to notice the increase. Which, given the relatively small sum, I could easily have missed.

Netflix was infinitely more honest when it raised the monthly price of it most popular service by $1.50. Well in advance of the effective date, I received a text AND an email. The next time I used the service, there was still another announcement, which I had to read and click past before I could watch anything.

I’d still prefer to keep the $1.50. But if a company simply MUST raise its price, the Netflix approach is the way to go.

Kudos for transparency.

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2/2/2022

Finally…a little good news

Climate change.

The potential for war Europe.

A big winter storm on the way.

Like everyone else, I find the news depressing. Sure, odds are very good that I’ll be okay. Still, as the song goes, I felt like I sure could use a little good news today.

Then, defying all expectations, this morning I got it!

I woke up to a radio newscast. None of the big stuff was fixed. But I got out of bed feeling pretty chipper all the same.

My granddaughter falls into that 2-5 age group, kids who haven’t been eligible for Covid vaccination. The radio told me that Pfizer may have a vaccine she can get as soon as March.

It was enough to make a curmudgeon whistle. At least for today.

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1/23/2022

Pandemic: Are we on our own? No. But, yeah.

During a physical, I asked my doctor for customized pandemic advice about what to do, not do, and think very carefully about before doing.

Who would know better than the doc, right? This guy is a medical professional, I’ve been seeing him for years, and he has loads of my health data.

His response amounted to a brief recap of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After which he added, “It’s a personal decision.”

Disappointing. Briefly maddening. But when I thought about it, what else was the dude going to say? The advice I was looking for probably would require more than an assessment of my health. He’d also need a reasonably deep understanding of my personality and hang-ups, plus social and family pressures.

So, CDC guidelines? While much better than nothing, that advice is quite general. Public health officials aren’t trying to help any individual in particular. Consider this statement from the American Public Health Association: “… people in the field of public health work to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy.”

Conditions.

Which is to say, pandemic-wise, public health operates on the law of large numbers. To the extent public health succeeds, as a group we should come out of the pandemic okay.

The best individuals can do for themselves and the people they care about is to become familiar with the CDC guidelines regarding such things a masking, vaccination, isolation, etc.

And, as individuals, apply them.

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1/5/2022

You never know

Pandemic. Political polarization. Climate change. Ever get the sense we’re swimming in our own history?

While I’d love to take credit for that metaphor, it was something I heard NPR analyst Jack Beatty say. Mr. Beatty’s point, I believe, is that we humans swim through an ocean so full of events and discoveries and trends, we may entirely miss things future historians will consider incredibly important.

The main character in my story “Epiphany,” for instance, never really sees the big picture. He’s an astrologer who doesn’t believe in astrology—or much of anything else. A con-man who throws in with two other charlatans, touring royal courts in the ancient Middle East.

These men, such as they are, don’t realize they’ll be remembered by Christians as the magi. And at the end of the story—spoiler alert—the main character can’t see far enough into the future to grasp what those familiar with Christian tradition will understand: his son will turn out to be Judas, betrayer of Jesus.

Sure, most of us never will participate in events that shape human history—at least not history writ large. But as we navigate the waters of everyday life, often without realizing it, we influence the trajectories of the lives of those around us.

One true story to illustrate.

Once there was a student teacher who proposed to lecture high school students about existentialism—lectures that would consume two entire class periods. Talk, talk and more talk about a complex subject to a captive audience of high schoolers? The supervising teacher could simply have shot down the idea. But she didn’t do that figuring, I suppose, that failure sometimes is a better teacher than success.

As the student teacher spoke and gestured and wrote on the board, most kids wiled away the time looking out the window, passing notes, sleeping. And when the two days were over the young teacher, having learned the hard way, never did anything like that again.

But she didn’t fail—not with everyone.

Forty years later—forty years—she encountered a member of that class. “You changed my life!” the former student said. Changed nothing less than the student’s way of understanding the world and being in it. The teacher had reached a student in a way she couldn’t have imagined four decades earlier.

So, yeah. You never know.

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Read "Epiphany"

12/16/2021

Calling all Adults: Let’s be careful out there

It seems the federal government has pretty much given up on anything more than lip service to persuade Americans to do the right thing this holiday season.

Sure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published “Safer Ways to Celebrate the Holidays” on its website. Vaccination, masking, distancing. Avoiding crowds, hand hygiene, testing.

Excellent advice, which I intend to follow. But my sense is that while the pandemic situation is not much better this December than it was a year ago, the CDC no longer speaks in urgent terms.

It’s like a parent who, having seen their wisdom disregarded and even scorned many times, repeats that advice without much real hope it will be heeded. At home, those parents still remind youngsters of the value of, say, healthy eating. And in a symbolic gesture, they even place an apple-a-day in the school lunch sack, understanding it probably be traded for junk food, if not trashed.

My own healthy-school-lunch record was pretty spotty. But now I’m an adult, and that’s the point.

Adults understand that the coronavirus won’t leave them alone or prevent them from infecting others just because they really, really, REALLY want to have a fun, traditional, shoulder-to-shoulder indoor holiday celebration—masks, distancing and all the rest be damned.

This is not the time to party like it’s 2019. Not while the Delta variant continues to fill ICUs in much of the country, overwhelming staff and facilities to a point that threatens their ability to adequately treat other serious conditions. Not while the Omicron strain, gathering momentum in the U.S. and around the world, will likely worsen the situation.

For goodness sake, the virus already has killed 800,000 Americans—including one percent of those over the age of 65. Children five years and under are particularly at risk, since they aren’t eligible for vaccinations.

Purely personal: I couldn’t live with myself if, in the name of a good time, I put anyone in the hospital. Or worse.

To the adults in the room: We understand that a lot of the people we know will do exactly as they please this holiday season. We also know that infections spiked after Thanksgiving, and that epidemiologists expect a further spike in the New Year.

So let’s be careful out there.

Even if we won’t have as much company as we might wish.

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12/11/2021

On Microaggression: From one White guy to other White folks

Psychology Today says microaggressions are words that “point out cultural difference in ways that put the recipient’s non-conformity into sharp relief, often causing anxiety and crises of belonging on the part of minorities.”

Volumes can and have been written about microaggression against women, LGBTQ people, the elderly and so many others. But in this brief epistle, given the reckoning our nation is going through, let’s consider racial microagression.

Examples:

Asking Latinos or Asians where they come from. (If you don’t look White, you’re not an American.)
Crossing the street or clutching a purse/wallet when a Black person approaches. (You are a criminal/dangerous).
Phrases like, “There is only one race, the human race.” (Your ethnic and cultural experiences are irrelevant.)

Microagression is much more than a matter of rudeness or hurt feelings. Also according to Psychology Today, “Data indicate that racial microaggressions are linked to low self-esteem, increased stress levels, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. People of color who experience microaggressions are more likely to feel sadness, anger and hopelessness…[and] …are more likely to report stomachaches, headaches, sleep disturbances, and high blood pressure…”

Microagressions add up and wear people down.

So why do we White people—sometimes even White people who consciously attempt to be anti-racists—do this?

Psychologist Derald Wing Sue suggest that “Our biases are the result of the culture we were raised in. And maybe the attitudes of the parents and relatives and teachers who raised us, however well-intentioned they were.”

How do we learn not to microaggress? The first step in resolving any problem is admitting that it exists. But that may not be easy. As Dr. Sue also notes, "It's a monumental task to get white people to realize that they are delivering microaggressions, because it's scary to them…It assails their self-image of being good, moral, decent human beings to realize that maybe at an unconscious level they have biased thoughts, attitudes and feelings that harm people of color.”

But we White people need to try.

For a start, we can venture out of the racial bubbles many of us live in. We can get to know people who don’t look like us, perhaps a co-worker or casual acquaintance.

Not everyone we approach will be receptive to that sort of relationship. And even among those who might be, it takes time to build trust in any relationship. That’s especially true given 400+ years of racial injustice perpetrated by White people. Maybe those people weren't us, but they look like us.

We also could join a multi-racial discussion group, formed to facilitate conversations about race and racism. Here’s one that currently meets online. If you do a web search, you’ll find lots of others.

White people can and should be more self-monitoring. Even if we can’t stop microaggressive thoughts from arising, we can recognize them as such and tell ourselves to cut that stuff out. Once we become aware of something, we can’t become unaware of it.

And if we witness microagression, we should call it out. People don’t react well to being preached at, so maybe something like, “You did NOT just say that.” A sincere response like “What did I say?” is an opportunity to raise awareness with a calm, non-judgmental, factual explanation.

No one of us can end microaggression. But collectively, my fellow White people, we can make a start.

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11/27/2021

All I want for Christmas: influential risk-takers

On Thanksgiving Day, South African scientists let the world know about a new Covid “variant of concern” named Omicron. Experts say it’ll be weeks before we know exactly how deadly the new strain is, and whether the vaccines we already have will be effective against it.

In reaction, other nations might reasonably have monitored travelers going to and from that part of the world, stepping up screening at points of entry and/or requiring longer quarantine periods. Instead, in a big holiday thank-you, governments including the U.S. issued outright bans on travel to and from South Africa and some of its neighbors.

Good luck trying to get other countries to share that sort of information in the future.

Here’s the thing. The pandemic is global. While the CDC says there are no known Omicron cases in the U.S., it’ probably only a matter of time. The other variants have shown up here—why wouldn’t Omicron?

That variant and all the others are the fault of wealthier nations that virtually cornered the market on vaccines. The lower the rate of vaccination, the more likely it is that variants will arise. While fully vaccinated Americans, Europeans and others are lining up for booster shots, in South Africa 72% of the population has yet to receive a single dose. It’s much the same in other less-wealthy nations.

As Omicron demonstrates now and Delta did before, variants don’t care about national borders. The more opportunity the virus has to replicate, the better the chance of a new, far worse mutation.

And the longer the pandemic will go on.

It doesn’t have to be that way. If a nation like the United States takes the lead in boosting vaccination rates around the world, other wealthy nations might follow.

To be sure, if that makes vaccine less available on our shores, some Americans who otherwise might have remained healthy could become gravely ill or die. I don’t want that to happen to me or any of my fellow-citizens. But if we don’t fairly share vaccine to bring up the global rate of vaccination, the pandemic may go on indefinitely. And Americans still will sicken and die unnecessarily.

Given divided politics and rising nativism, an initiative like this almost certainly would result in huge political blowback. To make it work, we’d need a cadre of influential, risk-taking leaders who know how to rally the nation to its better angels.

Those sorts of leaders—that’s all I want that for Christmas.

But I don’t see many people like that. Candidly, I don’t see any at all.

This Christmas, I’ll probably have to settle for a pair of socks.

11/20/2021

Rants…and pretty good idea...

Three facts, followed by a WTF:

Fact 1: While Michigan, where I live, accounts for only 3% of the U.S. population, right now one in every 10 cases comes from here.
Fact 2: K-12 schools in Michigan that have resumed face-to-face instruction have been cited as a major drivers of community infection.
Fact 3: A University of Michigan study showed that virus spread was 62% higher in school districts with no mask rules. Another study showed that masks—even among the unvaccinated—can reduce spread by more than 50%.

Now, the WTF: This past week four Michigan counties announced they will no longer require students to mask up.

A clueless way to spend too much money

Reportedly, a number of schools want to lure football coach Mel Tucker away from Michigan State University. To keep him, a couple of well-heeled alumni offered to pay the bulk of a $95 million, ten-year contract.

Those alums certainly can give away megabucks for purposes of ego, a gridiron thrill, or whatever it is that rings their bells.

But there’s a difference between what someone can do and what they ought to do. In the midst of a pandemic, refugee crisis, and oh-so-much need, funding football at that level doesn’t remotely belong in the “ought-to-do” category.

And finally, a pretty good Thanksgiving idea

Economist Justin Wolfers suggests postponing this Thanksgiving to the end of May 2022. His case in brief: “…when there are solid reasons for expecting greater safety just over the horizon, there’s an even larger benefit to being careful now, because that will ensure that you and your family live to enjoy those better days.” Read the full article here.

Ain’t gonna happen nationally, not with the holiday only a few days off. But an idea with merit, and something individual families may want to consider.

However you choose to celebrate, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

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11/6/2021

About the story “Prologue:” The quest that never ends

With a nod to Veterans Day this week, “Prologue,” is about a young American soldier in World War II. Having seen and done a lot of awful stuff, Art Rockwell has “the look and gait of a man much older than the twenty-year-old sergeant who’d come ashore on D-Day.”

Enter Percy, an irreverent British chaplain. As they talk, Art confides that after the war he hopes to live a long life, “Find a decent job…raise a family. Ordinary stuff.”

Noting that Art hopes for a long lifespan Percy says, “Your plan…seems...ordinary….to what purpose will Art Rockwell—citizen, husband, father—put that time?”

How would a mentally and spiritually exhausted guy like Art hear those words? Since D-Day he and his comrades had been fighting and dying, shouldering the burden of what the Allied commander-in-chief called “The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere.” Ridding Europe of Hitler and the Nazis—isn’t that that enough heavy lifting for a lifetime?

Not in Percy’s view. He sends Art on a quest to figure out how to keep making a difference.

A quest that never ends: Isn’t that the challenge we all face?

Having worked hard in school, how will we apply that knowledge, those skills? If we commit to another human, what does it really mean to be a good partner, spouse, friend, parent?

When Art asks for the answer, Percy says, “My answer won’t be yours. Even if I had one.”

Yup.

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10/23/2021

Filibuster bluster

President Biden said on Thursday that he was open to ending, or at least changing, the Senate filibuster rule.

‘Bout time.

Without getting into the weeds, these days it takes 60 of 100 U.S. senators to pass almost anything of importance. Removing the filibuster would require only 51 votes to pass a measure—a simple majority, which is exactly what the Constitution calls for.

You’ll hear arguments against repealing the filibuster. Tradition, for instance. Historically, the filibuster has been used for such noble purposes as defending slavery and protecting segregation. Is that a tradition we really want to preserve?

Some point out that when legislative majorities change, laws enacted by one Congress could be overturned by the next. Yeah, that might cause confusion. And sometimes I'm not going to be very happy with the result.

On the other hand, isn't that what democracy is about?

The filibuster is and always has been a parliamentary maneuver to allow a minority of senators--sometimes only one or two--to thwart the will of the majority. With increasing frequency over the past couple of decades, it’s been (ab)used by both parties to prevent action on almost everything.

It takes only a simple majority to abolish the rule.

For goodness sake, senators: Get rid of the filibuster and start governing.

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10/31/2021

Quick Takes: Media, Social Safety Net, Time Changes

Media hype…While rehearsing for a movie, actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer with a gun he was told did not contain live ammunition. Some media coverage of that horrible event is warranted. But against the background of so many other preventable deaths in our world, the steady drumbeat of Baldwin-related coverage has been way over the top.

The social safety net…Some Americans live in mortal fear that government programs might bestow benefits on a handful of cheaters out to game the system. Yeah, that can happen. But when Judgment Time rolls around for me, I’d much rather explain why I let some undeserving folks cash in, than account for withholding help from the neediest Americans, or making them jump through a discouraging set of bureaucratic hurdles to get it.

Time ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…When Daylight Savings Time ends next Sunday, most Americans will turn their clocks back an hour. But a lot of us will forget to do that and, on that day or maybe the next, show up for stuff at the wrong time. Then in the spring, we’ll switch back to DST, and go through it all again. The web is chock full of pro-con arguments for keeping or dropping DST. I don’t care enough to take a side. But to whoever decides this stuff: Can we drop the time change altogether? Can we just pick a system—Daylight Savings or Standard—and stick with it year-round?

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10/23/2021

Filibuster bluster

President Biden said on Thursday that he was open to ending, or at least changing, the Senate filibuster rule.

‘Bout time.

On the other hand, isn't that what democracy is about?

It takes only a simple majority to abolish the rule.

For goodness sake, senators: Get rid of the filibuster and start governing.

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10/17/2021

A few words on convincing writing from Professor Ted…

Today’s topic is writing intended to convince.

Let’s get one misconception out of the way from the start.

No opinion piece—no editorial or column—will change the mind of someone totally committed to the other point of view. It might reinforce the views of those who already agree. But the main audience is people who haven’t made up their minds.

Credibility is key to convincing someone else. To establish credibility with the undecideds, one thing a writer must do is fairly state the opposing case.

For example, here in Michigan the governor has ordered that contractors working on state-funded programs must pay workers a “prevailing wage,”—union wages and benefits, which usually are higher than non-union compensation.

One of the Detroit papers solemnly warned that this action—which they say is illegal—would harm taxpayers by driving “up the costs for schools, roads and parks…”

Illegal? Most of us who aren’t attorneys don’t have the chops to make an informed judgement. Besides, given the level of political opposition, the legality of the order probably will be decided in the courts.

Harmful to taxpayers?

Those who oppose using tax money for what certainly sounds like a bit of social engineering don’t need convincing. They’re already against the governor’s order.

But what about people who haven’t quite formed an opinion? Might they wonder what’s wrong with giving a raise to friends, neighbors and relatives who work hard? And is it right to hire workers for the lowest wage possible, simply to drive down costs for the rest of us taxpayers?

There probably are valid arguments to address those issues and others. But by failing to do that, the editorial makes itself irrelevant.

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10/9/2021

Challenge: Get out the echo chamber

A few years ago, I challenged myself to do two things. One: Regularly check the opinions of commentators with whom I usually disagree. Two: See if there was anything in their position that I could agree with.

I still do that. It keeps me from living in an echo chamber, hearing and reading only opinions I already agree with. And while I don’t recall changing my mind, I do occasionally have to check my thinking.

One of the opinion writers I read (and usually disagree with) is Nolan Finley of the Detroit News. Recently, he wrote in favor of a flat tax to replace the current graduated federal income tax. (Here’s the link, but you’ll need a subscription to read the whole piece.)

A flat tax strikes me as unfair, but that's not the point of this blog.

I didn't change my mind after reading Mr. Finley's column. But he did bring up a point worth considering: “When it comes to taxes,” he wrote, “the rich are different from everyone else because they have more accountants and lawyers skilled in sniffing out every possible credit and deduction in the tax code.”

I knew that, but hadn't fully factored it into my thinking.

Suggestion: Give it shot. Listen to or read people who disagree with you. And as you do that, rather than forming arguments to counter theirs, see if there isn’t at least something to what they have to say.

What’ve you got to lose?

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10/3/2021

A Ghost story (of sorts) for Halloween month

The setting for my story, “Sins of the Father," is a conversation between a college student and the ghost of his Grandpa Wil. Grandpa, serving time in Purgatory, is out on temporary leave.

In life, that man was stuck in a soul-sucking job. He gave in to that exhaustion, spending too little time with his own son, the student’s father. But Grandpa admits to knowing at the time that he “should have tried.”

In reaction, the student’s father smothers his own son in over-attention. I suspect that, at least sometimes, he knew he was overdoing it.

No world-class sinners here. Avoiding the awful stuff keeps us out of Hell.

It’s the lesser transgressions that stamp our ticket for Purgatory.

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9/26/2021

Grow up and work it out

First, a parable…One Family Movie Night, Mom and Dad asked the two kids to choose a video. One child wanted to watch Movie A, the other Movie B.

“Work it out between you,” the parents said.

After listening to an hour or so of heated discussion, Mom suggested watching half of each movie that night, finishing the rest next time. Dad asked if there weren’t some third movie that both kids would like.

But by bedtime, the children still were arguing. There was no movie on that Family Movie Night.

Which brings us to moderate and progressive Democrats in Congress. Polls show that, like me, a majority of Americans support measures to improve physical infrastructure and update the social safety net. And while Democrats have only a slim majority in both the House and Senate, it’s enough to pass the necessary legislation if they stick together.

Time’s running out. From everything I read, the Democrats probably won’t have the votes to do much of anything after the 2022 midterm elections.

Yet, even as bedtime approaches, progressives and moderates have dug in over the issue of how much the package should cost. Rather than budging to get some of what they want, both sides insist on all or nothing.

C’mon, kids. It’s almost bedtime. Work it out.

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9/18/2021

Messy, Messy, Messy

Why do any of us do what we do, believe what we believe?

I came across this quote from noted behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley in the New York Times:

“No psychologist asks people to explain the causes of their own thoughts or behavior anymore unless they’re interested in understanding storytelling.”

Storytelling. Which is to say, a mix of facts and emotions and stuff that may not even exist.

I’m no expert, but in my experience we also make up stories about other people. Anti-vaxxers, for instance.

For the record, I stand by my post of 8/2/21. Those who could get a shot but refuse mustn’t be allowed to endanger the rest of us.

But to illustrate the storytelling point, let me tell about a man I know. Call him Fred, a successful small business owner. Fred’s not a close friend, but he’s likeable guy and I enjoy shooting the breeze with him. Usually, Fred does most of the talking as we bounce, stream-of-consciousness-style, from one unrelated topic to the next.

One day, as he and I stood in the driveway—and apropos of nothing—Fred volunteered that he was unvaccinated. We were a reasonable distance apart. Even so I backed up a step, mentally reviewing a checklist for engaging non-vaxxers.

Don’t preach. Ask a question.

“Why not, Fred?”

It was the usual. Mistrust of government. Uncritical acceptance of misinformation. Fatalism. Individualism. Safety concerns about a vaccine that had been developed so quickly. “And besides,” Fred said. “I never get sick.”

I told Fred that I and almost every eligible person I know has been vaccinated. Some had mild discomfort for a day or two, but nothing lasting or serious. I was about to add that Fred’s history of good health might be nothing more than good fortune.

But he beat me to the punch: “You and those others have been lucky, Ted.”

I wasn’t going to change Fred’s mind. Maybe I’d planted a seed, albeit a seed that might not germinate for a very long time.

In my mind, I started writing a story to explain Fred to myself. His point of view seemed based in irrational mistrust, ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills.

Nah.

Fred’s business success clearly indicates intelligence. He must know how to sift information and make rational decisions. So what was his story?

As I tried to puzzle that out, Fred changed the subject again. He felt betrayed by a supplier who’d gone back on his word. It was hard to fill job openings. And then Fred reminded me of something he’d told me before. There’d been a sudden tragedy in his life, a tragedy that had deeply divided his family.

So this anti-vaxxing stance—was it lashing out? Or maybe exercising one element in his life he could control? I don’t know, and I bet Fred really doesn’t, either.

I still like the man and hope he gets vaccinated. Still, I won’t knowingly meet indoors with him or any other unvaccinated person, masking-up and otherwise limiting even that exposure. And I’ll continue to support measures to ensure more of us are vaccinated.

But that conversation brought home a lesson I seem to have to re-learn over and over: Human behavior is messy, messy, messy.

I doubt I’ll ever truly understand what lies behind Fred’s opinions and actions.

Or those of anybody else.

And definitely not my own.

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Read "Bigger Lies are Coming"

9/6/2021

Labor Daze: Flipping the Script?

This month’s featured story is “Bigger Lies Are Coming.” The main character, Phil, is a long-retired autoworker. While the story isn’t about his working years, it seemed a natural choice for Labor Day.

My grandfathers built cars a generation before Phil first stepped onto the shop floor. In my granddads’ day, the 1930s into the 1940s, working conditions were often rotten and employees could be fired at the whim of a foreman. That’s pretty much the way factory life had been, going back to the start of the Industrial Revolution 200 years earlier.

Flash forward to the mid-Twentieth Century. Autoworkers and others had organized, winning compensation and job security my grandfathers could only dream of.

Then the unions overreached. Wage and benefit demands made much of U.S. manufacturing globally uncompetitive . Contract provisions could make it all-but-impossible to terminate an individual for any but the most egregious causes. And public support for unions began to dwindle.

In 1983, about twenty percent of American workers were unionized. Forty years on, that percentage has been halved. As public support for unions waned, the bosses were able to flip the script, effectively lobbying for laws and regulations that amounted to legalized union-busting.

As executive compensation soared to levels that might shame King Midas, pay for everyone else—union and non-union—stagnated.

Then came the pandemic. As the economy re-opened, many employers were shocked—shocked!—to find that some of their people wouldn’t simply return to the old ways when told to do so. Was the cause unemployment benefits, which had been beefed during the pandemic?

Maybe.

But something more might be happening. Maybe people in low-paying jobs—jobs that sometimes were dangerous—won’t come back without a significant bump in pay and improvements in safety. Maybe office workers, having discovered that more time with friends and family is pretty valuable in itself, have no further interest in eighty-hour work weeks and long commutes.

Maybe the script is about to flip back.

8/29/2021

Of Learnings and a Milestone Birthday

About to observe a milestone birthday, I asked myself what I’ve learned over lo these (too) many years. Three of those learnings are below. Many readers are likely to shake their heads, having figured this stuff out well before I did.

That’s cool…

Opt for good enough.

During World War II, the Soviets had a saying: Perfection is the enemy of good enough. Much of their success was due to avoiding complexity when possible, figuring that lots of moving parts only increase the odds of failure.

I would not have wanted to serve in the Soviet army under any circumstances. But it would’ve been a particularly uncomfortable place for perfectionist like me. My natural inclination is to favor the sort of elegant solutions the Russians avoided. But age and (bad) experience has taught me to check myself, to see if some other path might be good enough. I’m inconsistent, but I’m trying.

Patience tends to be rewarded.

Maybe this is a corollary to the Soviet lesson.

I have tendency to go after challenges head first. Sometimes, that’s okay. But other times it amounts to running the football into the center of a very good defensive line. Even success can mean broken bones.

Better to take a moment to assess the situation. To see if there isn’t some less-bruising way to a “good enough” result. Still working on this one, too.

Find the kindest, nicest, smartest person in the world, and convince them to spend the rest of their life with you.

Done and done!

8/23/2021

Knee-Deep in our Own Stuff

Climate change. Pandemic surge. Afghanistan debacle. I’ve been thinking and worrying about all of those things.

But mostly, I’ve been knee-deep in my own stuff. Renewing my driver license. Wondering about a mild pain in my foot. Planning a driving trip.

The plowman in a Sixteenth Century painting, Breughel’s Icarus, probably would understand. (Check out the painting.) It’s is based on a Greek myth in which Icarus, flying with the aid of wax wings, soars too close to the sun. The sun melts the wings, plunging Icarus into the sea, where he drowns.

But this painting isn’t really about Icarus, whose watery death takes place in the background. It’s about the plowman in the foreground. That man is so focused on his own stuff—plowing—that he doesn’t even notice Icarus has fallen from the sky.

I doubt it’s a matter of indifference. We humans tend to focus on the immediate and the near. Why wouldn’t we? A botched job could mean starvation for the plowman. And, heck, I need my driver license not only to legally operate a vehicle, but also to verify my identity at places like a doctor’s office.

But I’m not quite ready to let either the plowman or myself off the hook. If the plowman had noticed a man falling from the sky, could he have shouted to another man in the painting, nearer the sea, who might have saved Icarus?

Me? Well, the People in Charge don’t seek my input on climate policy. But I recycle and opt to pay a little more to get electricity from sources like wind and solar. Pandemic-wise, I’m fully vaccinated, wear a mask in public and social-distance. And while Afghanistan won’t be the only issue I consider during next election, it will be a consideration as I cast my vote.

Also, I’ll keep writing, hoping to influence others. (Thanks for reading, BTW.)

I know, I know. It doesn’t sound like all that much.

But consider a story I heard recently. A sparrow was in the road, lying on his back, tiny feet toward the air. A lark passing by asked why he was doing that.

“I heard the sky will be falling soon,” The sparrow said.

The lark scoffed. “Do you really think you can hold up the sky with those two spindly legs?”

The sparrow shrugged and said, “One does what one can.”

Yep.

8/2/2021

Vaccination: Why the turn to less-than-gentle persuasion?

In the wake of yet another Covid-19 wave and lagging rates of vaccination, many employers plan to impose regular testing on those who choose to go unvaccinated. Other organizations will go further, forcing a choice between vaccination and continued employment. Venues like restaurants and theaters already have re-imposed masking requirements, and some will require proof of vaccination for entry. More measures like these may be on the way.

Why the turn to not-so-gentle persuasion?

Because willful non-vaxxers haven’t been moved by facts. Nor appeals to public safety. Or even by free beer or gift cards or lotteries.

If it were simply about their health, the rest of us might sadly shrug our shoulders. But the unvaccinated are a clear and present contagion threat to lots of our kids. No vaccine is yet approved for those under twelve years of age. Regardless of the precautions their parents take, some of those youngsters will be infected. Some will die. So will people who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.

Secondarily but still important, consider the potential economic impact. If the virus spike continues, businesses will again close and lay off workers. Would Washington come through with another meaningful relief package like the one that saved many individuals and businesses from financial disaster in 2020? Given our divisive politics and the 2022 election on the horizon, it’s far from a safe bet.

None of this is likely to convince the purposely unvaccinated.

But maybe it will help them to understand that measures the rest of us take or support don’t derive from spite. Or even tough love.

It’s self-defense, pure and simple.

7/26/2021

54 Years after the Detroit Rebellion:

What Have We Learned?

My story “Summer of Love,” takes place on July 23, 1967—the first day of the nearly week-long Detroit Rebellion.

I hope you’ll read the story. But this blog is mostly a reflection about those days.

Unlike the story’s protagonist, I was nowhere near any of the violence. Tanks rolled down a main thoroughfare in my neighborhood and National Guard troops were stationed at familiar intersection. But I didn’t know any of the forty-three people who died or the seven thousand who were arrested. I don’t think I ever was in any of the thousand building that burned.

While I’ve known for a long time what happened, it wasn’t until years later that I began to understand why.

At the time of the rebellion, Detroit still was majority-White city. The city’s White leaders and the White voters who kept them in office tolerated brutality against Blacks by a police department that was nearly all White. Via intentional housing discrimination, they forced Blacks into segregated neighborhoods. Then, when it came time to plan new freeways, they chose routes consciously aimed at destroying thriving Black communities and businesses.

I don’t believe in violence. But given decades of anger, frustration and resentment, I get it.

What have we learned in the fifty-four years since the rebellion?

Check out your news feed. Because we haven’t learned enough.

Not nearly enough.

Read "Summer of Love"

7/19/2021

Words Matter: A Case in Point

Words matter. And loaded words—words that carry meaning beyond the literal—matter even more.

Case in point: communications from the Catholic Church—my church—in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Faced with rising costs, plus declines in the number of clergy and lay members, the archdiocese is grouping neighborhood parishes into “families” of three or four that will share physical resources, priests and staff.

I’m no expert but the Church here has to do something, and this plan sounds like a reasonable approach. In conjunction, the archdiocese also is rolling out a decent-sounding effort to bring congregants closer to each other. Another idea that sounds pretty good.

But language is critical, and some of the words in official archdiocese communications carry baggage that distracts and works against the message.

For instance, we’re told this initiative is “God’s plan.”

Hyperbole, much? I hope God’s behind the “family of parishes” plan, and I’m sure that church leaders did pray before making a decision this big. But we humans have a woeful track record of incorrectly conflating our beliefs and desires with those of the Almighty. How about something like “We believe this is God’s plan.” (Although even that seems over-the-top.)

Catholics also have been told that the success of this initiative would depend, in part, on a word highlighted in a video: trust.

No doubt, the “families of parishes” concept will work only if lay Catholics buy in. But that choice of words—trust? Clueless, given decades of betrayal by Church leaders everywhere who covered up scandal after scandal. Like it or not, even archbishops who have not been complicit are tarred by that brush.

Better in both cases to simply make the rational argument with better-chosen words. Which, in this instance, shouldn’t be hard at all.

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7/10/2021

“The Least I Could Do”…Cop-Out?

Back in high school, a teacher posed this question: “If you had to choose, would you opt for a life of ease and comfort or truth and beauty?”

Being teenagers with absolutely nothing on the line, all of us chose truth and beauty. But choices in the adult world—choices with practical consequences—aren’t nearly as easy or clearly defined.

Consider the unnamed main character of “The Least I Could Do,” a middle manager. As those who’ve had such jobs know, little about middle managers’ lives resembles ease and comfort. At best, they survive in a no-man’s-land, caught between the demands of higher-ups and the human needs and reactions of those they supervise.

Why not just chuck it all and quit?

Sure, that might usher in a period of truth and beauty. But, as bills come due, that period might prove short-lived.

Complicating matters, the main character secretly wants to join a subordinate, the eccentric Emerson, in quietly cynical acts of defiance. But the MC doesn’t do that, because of “…a mortgage, two kids in college and two car payments…” Under the circumstances, “the most I could do was pretend not to notice” what Emerson was up to.

One day, the main character’s boss witnesses Emerson velcroing the nameplate of a co-worker to a fabric wall holding many other nameplates of the “furloughed.” The boss orders the MC to fire Emerson and then place Emerson’s nameplate on that wall to “make a point.”

Unable to change the boss’s mind, the MC begins the bureaucratic process required by the company’s Human Resources Department. When the documentation is complete, the main character considers whether or not to actually send it on to Human Resources.

Disobeying the big boss is the objectively “right” thing to do. In fact, the MC considers writing “Emerson a commendation glowing enough to bullet-proof him, at least for a while.”

But only for a while. Even a commendation won’t save Emerson’s job indefinitely. And it would probably result in the MC’s own firing. The main character sends the memo. Then, alone in the office long after the close of business, the MC drops Emerson’s nameplate into a dumpster.

Now, the boss will not be able to make a point by adding Emerson’s nameplate to the memorial wall. This is an act of defiance by the MC. But a safe one, and only sort of defiant. As the character reflects, “It was the least I could do.” Short of doing nothing, it probably was the very least.

I sent the original draft of “The Least I Could Do” to others for critique. One of those folks would have preferred the MC defy the boss and felt the ending (which I kept) was an unsatisfying cop-out.

But how many of us really would choose differently? Instead, might some of us rationalize saving our own skins, as the main character does?

Not admirable, and definitely a cop-out.

Which is the point.

If stories set in an office environment interest you, you may also want to read:

Darwin’s Monkey: Phil was my boss. Was my boss. No official announcement, but reliable word had been out…Read more

Raptured: Here’s how shit-canning works at our shop. Near the end of the day one is summoned to a conference room…Read more

Squashing a Grasshopper: Usually by this time, Darwin and I had the place to ourselves. But on that day, a security guard stood near as Darwin dropped personal belongings into a cardboard box…Read more

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6/28/2021

Darwin’s Monkey…a First Step into the Twilight Zone?

Recently, a streaming service premiered a new version of “The Twilight Zone,” a TV series that debuted in 1959 and has had oh-so-many revivals since.

I haven’t watched many of the new episodes, but I recall that the original often examined the disappointment—sometimes even the horror—that can occur when people get exactly what they think they want.

My story, “Darwin’s Monkey,” can be read as a sort of prequel to one of those “Twilight Zone” episodes. Set in a survival-of-the-fittest corporate jungle, the main character brings down Darwin, his boss, and takes that man’s place on the evolutionary ladder.

To be clear, Darwin commits fraud for personal gain. He’s nothing like a good guy. But the main character who turns him in really isn’t any better. He blows the whistle partly out of fear of losing his own job, which is reasonable. But his motives are at best mixed…he also knows that turning Darwin in is likely to result in his own promotion. And he has no mixed feelings about that.

Does Darwin know what the main character did? Probably. But what good would ranting and recrimination do?

As the story closes, Darwin places the baseball cap he’s been wearing on the main character’s head. A sort of transfer of the target that had been on Darwin’s own back.

A warning and a curse.

Read “Darwin’s Monkey”

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6/19/2021

Juneteenth and the Myth of One-and-Done

This week President Biden signed into a law a new Federal holiday to celebrate Juneteenth—the nineteenth of June.

Full disclosure: Until a few years ago, I hadn’t heard of Juneteenth, even though I’ve had a lifelong interest in Civil War history. According to historian Henry Louis Gates, that day is “the most popular annual celebration of emancipation from slavery in the United States.”

By way of brief background, Robert E. Lee’s army surrendered in April 1865, ending most fighting in the Civil War. Even so, Federal troops in meaningful numbers didn’t arrive in Texas until June of that year. On June 19, Union Major General Gordon Granger issued an order that began, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

But slave owners tended to keep that information to themselves until bluecoats or a Federal agent showed up to enforce General Granger’s order. In fact, legal slavery continued in Maryland and Delaware until December 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified by 27 of the 36 states. All states eventually ratified the amendment, although Delaware waited until 1901; Kentucky until 1976.

In America—the White America I know—we love to believe we’ve accomplished a goal so we can move on to the next thing. One and done.

But it seldom works that way, especially when the issue at hand is racial justice. Consider:

Slavery, itself. The 13th Amendment ended slavery as a legal institution. But as the years wore on, states in the former Confederacy enacted laws that made it easier to imprison Black people. Prisoners condemned to hard labor were often rented out by prisons to work on plantations. Slavery by other means.

Voting. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, states that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Yet by the 1880s, grandfather laws, poll taxes, and literacy tests did abridge that right. Laws like those continued in force until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Fast-forward to the present. In the wake of 2020 election results that saw conservatives lose both the presidency and the senate, hundreds of laws to restrict voting rights are under consideration at the state level. Jim Crow 2.0.

Anti-Black Violence. The original Jim Crow laws were enforced in the South by the Ku Klux Klan via burnings, lynchings and other acts of intimidation. In cities both North and South, Whites rioted when Black business people became too prosperous. Today? Look no further than George Floyd and so many other victims of police killings.

One and done? Hardly.

Martin Luther King believed that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But there still are lots of people tugging it in the other direction. It’s up to the rest of us to make sure they don’t succeed.

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6/12/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh…One More Time

I've often blogged about chapters of Lost in Pittsburgh as I released them on the site. Sometimes the subject was how they came to be. Other times what I thought about as I pounded the keys. And a lot of other stuff.

Here in one place is a—I was about to say “curated” versions of those blogs. But instead, let’s just call them slightly edited.

Posted 1/17/2021

Submitted for Your Approval:

Chapter One of a New Flash Novel

Just as “flash” short stories are considerably shorter than traditional stories, a flash novel—this one, at least—is shorter than a traditional novel. You can probably read a chapter in less than five minutes.

Chapter One introduces Augie Olszewski, a cynic in late middle age who’d been meandering through life. The meandering—that’s going to change for Augie and his lover, Nina Frey—in ways they can’t imagine.

A couple of personal notes. The novel is set in the Pittsburgh area, where I lived for more than a dozen years. It’s a nice town, with lots of nice people. But, as Augie observes, the area’s quirky roads and interstates can be very tough to navigate. Like him, I was often literally lost in Pittsburgh.

Another observation…In Chapter One Augie has a confrontation of sorts with a cop. At first, Augie plays it for laughs and the policeman is patient. I wrote that section a few years before police violence against people of color was the issue it rightfully has become (and should have been a long time ago). It didn’t occur to me then, but now—with all that has happened since—I see the scene as a sort of study in White privilege.

Posted 3/28/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I know a young man who, returning home from his first few months of college, met up with his high school buddies. Afterward, a little sadly, he reflected, “Those guys have not changed at all."

Sometimes, like that young man, we recognize big changes in ourselves. But it seems to me that important changes tend to creep up on us, often the result of random experiences.

Take Augie Olszewski, for instance, one of the major characters in Lost in Pittsburgh.

Augie, an amiable cynic with an anti-authority streak, had been phoning it in at work for decades. Then the CEO plucks him out of obscurity and, by Chapter 6, he’s the big boss’s go-to person. He voluntarily works long hours and cares about his job—not a bad thing, in itself. But in the process, Augie’s empathy has taken a big hit. Nina, his significant other, wonders, “Who or what was Augie becoming?”

Also in Chapter 6, as Nina’s successful career as a mutual fund manager seems to be slipping away. She’s ch-ch-ch-ch-changing, too—albeit in less obvious ways. Watching TV footage of protestors on television, she reflects on what might have been: “There were nuns among the protestors—could’ve been me, if things had played out differently.”

Posted 4/12/2021

Augie’s Dramatic Career Upswing:

Can Stuff Like That Really Happen?

In Chapter 7 of Lost in Pittsburgh Augie, whose career had flat lined for decades, becomes a member of his company’s executive team.

As I worked out the plotting, I wondered about plausibility. Why hadn’t Augie long ago looked for a better opportunity elsewhere? And why had his ability gone unrecognized to that point?

Since I stuck with that scenario—yeah, I think it’s plausible.

In terms of Augie’s talent going unrecognized... Well, gosh. That happens all the time, in organizations large and small. Managers may assume that, if a person hasn’t advanced more than x over some period of time, they never will. Also, pains in the backside like Augie rarely get promotions. (Which often leads them to become even bigger pains in the backside.)

Why didn’t Augie take the initiative, find another place to work where he’d be more appreciated? Inertia, maybe. It’s a hassle to move from one employer to another. And, possibly, fear of the unknown. You know what they say about the grass looking greener, but ending up a good deal more brown?

Augie’s dramatic rise, while rare, could happen.

Although, as we’re starting to see in the novel, that can come at a cost.

Posted 4/24/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: Nina, Alan and Shakespeare

In Chapter 8, Alan Bessler gets fleshed-out a bit.

To this point, he’d made some cameo appearances as Augie Olszewski’s sidekick. But the two had been drifting apart, and something Augie does brings the relationship to an end. A sympathetic Nina visits Alan. Alan, filters no longer functioning, forces Nina to face some uncomfortable truths in the course of a Shakespeare-laced diatribe.

As I thought about that Alan-Nina scene, I wondered if the Shakespeare allusions might be too much.

Why would a modern non-English major know so much Shakespeare?

As noted earlier in the flash novel, Alan is a would-be actor who “dreamed of playing Hamlet or Macbeth.” And, in other scenes, he peppers his speech with allusions to various plays and often uses the sort of archaic language we associate with Shakespeare’s time.

My guess is that even many well-read folks haven’t experienced much Shakespeare since high school. So I tried to make the allusions understandable in context. For instance, in the course of comparing Nina to Ophelia, Alan notes that Ophelia and Hamlet also were a couple. When Alan decides that Nina is more like Lady Macbeth, he says that Nina, like Lady Macb, “filled her man with the holy spirit of ambition.” (Not a fair comparison, but that’s Alan for you.)

Even so, why go there? Allusions can nuance and/or add to a reader’s appreciation. Those who already understand the plays Alan mentions will, I hope, see something beyond what he explains. And for anyone else who may be interested, that internet-search thingy can be useful.

Posted 5/22/2021

Nina: Fitting in?

Lost in Pittsburgh can be read as Nina Frey’s quest to find her place in the world. Recall that, as a young woman, she joins a religious community. But due to her brashness, her cockiness, the head of the order asks her to take some time away to consider if this is the life for her. She doesn’t kick Nina out forever, telling her, “…every door swings both ways.” But as Nina leaves, she slams shut a literal door.

If Nina doesn’t belong there, where does she belong? In another flashback, MBA in hand, she interviews for an entry-level job with a socially responsible mutual fund. During the interview, Nina is disillusioned to realize that the fund also invests in companies that seem anything but socially responsible.

Still, Nina takes the job, telling herself that most other companies in the portfolio are socially responsible. But once she’s promoted to portfolio manager and is the one calling the shots, Nina continues to invest in the bad actors.

Nina becomes a “priestess of Mammon,” albeit an uncomfortable one, because what she does is incompatible with who she is.

Posted 5/8/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh, Chapter 9:

Of Lives, Economics and Luck

Chapter 9 of Lost in Pittsburgh begins with the funeral of Chaim Minsker, who committed suicide. He’d taken out an ill-advised home mortgage in a desperate, futile attempt to resuscitate the business his grandfather had started. Now, thanks to proceeds of a life insurance policy, Chaim’s widow will be able to pay off the mortgage and keep the home.

Nina feels guilty, wondering if she could have tried harder to dissuade Chaim from taking out the mortgage in the first place. Augie has no empathy at all: “Chaim was an adult,” he says. “He made a bad decision. Foreclosure was a logical consequence.”

Nina’s wrong about her direct responsibility—probably no one could’ve talked Chaim out of the mortgage. But she does bear some indirect culpability. As we see in Chapter 4, years earlier Nina rationalized her principles to become a “priestess of Mammon,” embracing an economic system that she understood rewards cunning and ruthlessness. It was that system that drove Chaim to take his own life.

Augie? As Lost in Pittsburgh began, he was just another worker-bee, albeit a cynical one. But by Chapter 9, he’s riding high career-wise and has adopted the point of view we hear so often from economically successful people—others simply aren’t as smart or hard-working. Their failure is their own fault. And a subtext: My success is of entirely of my own making.

Yet a lot of smart people who work very hard barely scrape by. Because in addition to intelligence and hard work, financial success in America depends on luck.

People born in the United States have a leg up to begin with. Being raised in the right zip code helps a ton. And never underestimate the importance of parents and the values they pass down.

The list could go on.

Posted 6/5/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: The Conclusion…Kinda, Sorta

Is the end ever really the end?

I mean outside of a feel-good movie where, in the course of a couple of hours, all issues are resolved and a dollop of poetic justice meted out. In my view, the only real closure is the point at which we assume room temperature. Otherwise, life is one iffy choice, leading to another, and still more after that.

That’s how Chapter 11, the conclusion of Lost in Pittsburgh, plays out.

Recall, Nina has been unmoored for most of her adult life. As a young woman, she thought she wanted to join a religious community. But due to her brashness, her cockiness the head of the order asks Nina to take some time away to consider if this is the life for her. Nina then joins a mutual fund company, where she’s never really comfortable with the compromises she must make to be successful.

In Chapter 10, Nina quits that job, finally realizing that she “…didn’t belong with [my boss] and the others, anymore…”

So where does Nina belong? As the final chapter opens, she thinks it might be with the G-20 protestors—a mélange of groups and individuals united by a common interest in opposing injustice, economic and otherwise.

A bus driver asks if someone like Nina really belongs there. To herself Nina acknowledges, “I wasn’t sure. Not at all.”

Nina does join with the protestors. Briefly recalling her time in the convent she considers herself, "…Once again, a novice in a new community.”

Happy ending?

Kinda, sorta. Here’s the thing, though. Will Nina’s feeling of inclusion continue past the protest? Has she really found her way to the place she belongs?

If I were sure, I would’ve written a little more to show how much Nina has in common with the others, new friendships she begins, and so on. But I think she really just closes her eyes, takes a leap and hopes for the best.

I hope Nina finds the sense of community she's looking for. But as the flash novel concludes, I suspect she's not so much arrived a destination as she has embarked on yet another journey.

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6/5/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: The Conclusion…Kinda, Sorta

(You may want to read the final chapter of Lost in Pittsburgh before reading the rest of this post.)

Is the end ever really the end?

That’s how Chapter 11, the conclusion of Lost in Pittsburgh, plays out.

In Chapter 10, Nina quits that job, finally realizing that she “…didn’t belong with [my boss] and the others, anymore…”

A bus driver asks if someone like Nina really belongs there. To herself Nina acknowledges, “I wasn’t sure. Not at all.”

Nina does join with the protestors. Briefly recalling her time in the convent she considers herself, "…Once again, a novice in a new community.”

Happy ending?

Kinda, sorta. Here’s the thing, though. Will Nina’s feeling of inclusion continue past the protest? Has she really found her way to the place she belongs?

I hope Nina finds the sense of community she's looking for. But as the flash novel concludes, I suspect she's not so much arrived a destination as she has embarked on yet another journey.

PS: Hope you enjoyed reading Lost in Pittsburgh as much as I did writing it. I’m probably going back to shorter flash fiction pieces, at least for a while. In the meantime, check out the nearly two dozen free-to-read stories already on the site.

Read Lost in Pittsburgh

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5/22/2021

Nina: Fitting in?

Nina becomes a “priestess of Mammon,” albeit an uncomfortable one, because what she does is incompatible with who she is. As the newly published Chapter 10 begins, Nina has been shocked into facing this dichotomy.

Check out Chapter 10 and all available chapters here.

In the upcoming Chapter 11—the final chapter—Nina makes a pair of very big decisions. Will those decisions lead her to the place she belongs, the people she belongs with?

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Read the flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh

5/15/2021

Of Automakers and the Unemployed

In the part of the world where I live, public transportation is a joke. Almost everyone needs access to a personal vehicle.

Certain automakers, faced with a part shortage that may last a year or more, have decided to curtail production of basic transportation, focusing resources on big-ticket models with high profit margins. Which, in turn, will drive up the price of such vehicles as family sedans, both new and used.

This won’t matter much to folks with the means to purchase any sort of vehicle that catches their fancy. Everyone else? Maybe they can hitch a ride on a truck or SUV.

Recall, some of the auto companies doing this are the ones we bailed out with tax dollars during the Great Recession.

Overwhelming, the gratitude.

Another thing. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that more than 10 million Americans are jobless, some businesses report difficulty in filling positions. Many of them blame that on a federal program that adds $300 per week to state unemployment benefits. This, they posit, results in an income so high that people don’t want to work.

Could there be other factors at play? That Covid thing, for instance. With many schools still not back to five-day, in-person classes, might child care be an issue? Health concerns, maybe? There still are hordes of unvaccinated people out there. Some, proudly so. (Sigh.)

But, sure. Some percentage of the unemployed really do stay home because unemployment benefits net them more than what many businesses want to pay. Which is to say that some of the unemployed are acting in their own economic interest.

Just like…well, the auto companies, for instance.

5/8/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh, Chapter 9:

Of Lives, Economics and Luck

(Suggestion: Read Chapter 9 and then come back here.)

Yet a lot of smart people who work very hard barely scrape by. Because in addition to intelligence and hard work, financial success in America depends on luck.

People born in the United States have a leg up to begin with. Being raised in the right zip code helps a ton. And never underestimate the importance of parents and the values they pass down.

The list could go on.

Will Nina and/or Augie figure any of this out for themselves in the final two chapters? And if so, what will they do about it? Stay tuned…

Read a story set in a neighborhood like the one where my mother grew up. (Plot itself is pure fiction.)

5/1/2021

(Early) Mother’s Day Thoughts

My mother died five years ago this weekend, just past her ninetieth birthday and a little short of Mother’s Day.

Given the place and time into which she was born, her story was not unique. But it always fascinated me.

Mom grew up in Southwest Detroit in an immigrant neighborhood where most people preferred to speak Polish. As she told it, while you’d never mistake the area for Disneyland, it was reasonably safe place to be a kid. Even though the basement of the family home had once been a speakeasy. Even though the candy store where Mom traded pennies for Mary Janes was a front for the numbers racket.

When my mother was a teen, she wanted roller skates more than anything. Finally, one Sunday in December, she and my grandfather went to Hudson’s Department Store to buy a pair. Riding down the escalator, holding the box tightly against her side, Mom was thrilled. Then, an announcement over the public address system: Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Thousands dead. America at war. Decades later, she recalled wondering what right she had to be happy.

These days, my own childhood memories are grainy as old 8mm home movies. Mom, unexpectedly parked at the curb to drive me home from school on a cold day. Helping me memorize prepositions—homework whose purpose I wonder if either of us ever grasped. Reminding me that anything worth doing, is worth doing right. (Advice I wish I’d followed more often.)

As a child or adult, I wish I’d said thank you more often.

Toward the end, when I’d come to visit, Mom often would ask, “How come you’re so nice to me?”

Right back at you, Mom.

4/24/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: Nina, Alan and Shakespeare

In Lost in Pittsburgh’s just-posted Chapter 8, Alan Bessler gets fleshed-out a bit.

As I thought about that Alan-Nina scene, I wondered if the Shakespeare allusions might be too much.

Why would a modern non-English major know so much Shakespeare?

My guess is that even many well-read folks haven’t experienced much Shakespeare since high school. So I tried to make the allusions understandable in context. For instance, in the course of comparing Nina to Ophelia, Alan notes that Ophelia and Hamlet also were a couple. When Alan decides that Nina is more like Lady Macbeth, he says that Nina, like Lady Mcb, “filled her man with the holy spirit of ambition.” (Not a fair comparison, but that’s Alan for you.)

Even so, why go there? As I noted in the February 22 blog (scroll down), allusions can nuance and/or add to a reader’s appreciation. Those who already understand the plays Alan mentions will, I hope, see something beyond what he explains. And for anyone else who may be interested, as also noted in the earlier blog, that internet-search thingy can be useful.

Anyway, readers. I hope you like Chapter 8. With only three chapters to go, things are about to get worse for Nina. Lots worse.

4/19/2021

Covid communications and the Truth: Handle with care

This past week, the CDC and FDA recommended a pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine as it investigates “cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the…vaccine.”

Stop using the J&J product until experts evaluate a previously unknown potential risk. No-brainer, right? Failing to pause and communicate the information would be both immoral and an unforgivable breach of trust.

But, based on a career of crafting corporate messages about difficult subjects, I’m guessing the decision was hotly debated.

In every organization, some subset of decision-makers always want to sit on negative information. In this case, they’d argue that the risk seemed small—the number of people reporting blood clots was less than one per million doses. And what if it turned out the blood clotting was unrelated to the vaccine? Pausing before all the data had been sifted could feed the disinformation machine and further raise concerns among those who already were hesitant to be vaccinated, at all.

As I said, an immoral position. But even as a matter of pure pragmatism, it wouldn’t work. Secrets—especially secrets that potentially impact the health and welfare of a large number of people—tend to find their way out. When that happens the organization is seen as a less-credible source about both the matter in question and other information it may subsequently release.

Acting and communicating as the CDC and FDA did probably will make it harder to convince the doubters they should vaccinate. But the fallout from failing to act and communicate candidly would be much, much worse.

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4/12/2021

Augie’s Dramatic Career Upswing:

Can Stuff Like That Really Happen?

In Chapter 7 of my flash novel Lost in Pittsburgh Augie, whose career had flat lined for decades, becomes a member of his company’s executive team.

As I worked out the plotting, I wondered about plausibility. Why hadn’t Augie long ago looked for a better opportunity elsewhere? And why had his ability gone unrecognized to that point?

Since I stuck with that scenario—yeah, I think it’s plausible.

Augie’s dramatic rise, while rare, could happen.

Although, as we’re starting to see in the novel, that can come at a cost.

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4/4/2021

Remembrance of an Easters Past

Easter of …Let’s say, the mid Nineteen-Fifties…

My small self and tinier-still little brother stand in the driveway wearing topcoats, just like Dad’s, over newly purchased “good” clothes we will outgrow before there will be an occasion to wear them again. Our fedoras, while cute, are ineffective against the early spring chill.

Dad, starts his 8 mm camera and Mom, obviously expecting my little sister in a few months, stands beside him. “Come toward the camera, boys,” she says.

I do as I’m told, performing a silly walk while making a sillier face. My brother notices, and does the same. This displeases our parents, but not enough to withhold baskets full of chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks.

More candy than any child should possess at one time.

My brother and I—and eventually our sister—will remake the same film every year.

Until early in my junior high school career, when I decide I am too old for such foolishness.

But the basket full of more candy than any child should possess at one time— I'm still not too old for that.

3/28/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I know a young man who, returning home from his first few months of college, met up with his high school buddies. Afterward, a little sadly, he reflected, “Those guys have not changed at all."

Sometimes, like that young man, we recognize big changes in ourselves. But it seems to me that important changes tend to creep up on us, often the result of random experiences.

Take Augie Olszewski, for instance, one of the major characters in Lost in Pittsburgh. (Chapter 6 now posted. All available chapters free to read.)

Also in Chapter 6, as Nina’s successful career as a mutual fund manager seems to be slipping away, she’s ch-ch-ch-ch-changing, too—albeit in less obvious ways. Watching TV footage of protestors on television, she reflects on what might have been: “There were nuns among the protestors—could’ve been me, if things had played out differently”

Back to the future? Stay tuned.

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3/21/2021

Three Lessons from the Pandemic

There’s a saying in politics: Never let a good crisis go to waste.

In the political context, cynical as hell. But it might just be a sentiment we can leverage with regard to the pandemic. The war against Covid is far from won. But in the aftermath and going forward, here are three lessons we might consider applying.

Public health matters. In the U.S. and elsewhere, much pandemic suffering and death has been a direct result of government lack of preparedness. Less failure to plan, as failure to execute contingency plans already in place. For lack of equipment stockpiles. For tardiness to focus. For hoping the bad stuff would all go away…as if hope and neglect were a strategy.

So do people who do the “invisible” stuff. Health care workers, first responders and all those whose efforts have made the pandemic less awful than it might have been deserve our heartfelt thanks and admiration. But where would we be without the folks who deliver packages, stock shelves, haul away trash? People whose jobs don’t pay much, for the most part. How about showing our thanks by providing a living wage?

And please: Let’s give each other a break. Angry recriminations don’t change minds. Ditto even the most cogent, fact-filled argument. Listening to and understanding others is the key. Pretty hard, this business of changing our hearts. But arguably the key to fixing everything else.

Next time: Chapter 6 of the flash novel Lost in Pittsburgh. The first five chapters are available, and you can read a summary of chapters 1-4 in the 3/14/2021 blog post, just below this one.

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3/14/2021

Lost in Pittsburgh: The Story So Far…

I just posted Chapter 5 of the flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh. This is the story of Augie and Nina, significant others whose lives and values will be challenged in ways they never foresaw.

If you haven’t caught up on the first four chapters—less than 1,000 words each—I hope you’ll take a read. But for those looking for a “Cliff Notes” version of the story so far…

The setting is Pittsburgh, during the summer of 2009, the first year of the Great Recession. The G20, leaders of the world’s largest economies, plan to meet there in September.

Augie has been coasting through a mediocre career as a promotional writer at a mortgage company. For years he and his best friend, Alan Bessler, had stoked each other’s cynicism and collaborated on modestly subversive practical jokes at the office. Augie’s big chance comes when the CEO Fred Newcomb, having just fired his former speechwriter, turns to Augie in a pinch. Could this be the start of something big? Pick up the story in Chapter 5.

Nina, once close to becoming a nun, was asked to leave. Twenty years on, she’s a successful mutual fund manager. Her fund always had performed quite well, but in the previous quarter she’d topped her category for the first time. But far from being joyful, Nina feels depressed and doesn’t know why. In Chapter 5, she figures it out and plans her next move.

By way of other background…Two years earlier Chaim Minsker, a neighbor and mutual friend of Augie and Nina, was worried about his failing neighborhood stationery store. Chaim’s plan to turn things around required financing. But no bank would give him a business loan, so in that era of easy money he mortgaged the home his grandfather built. Nina and Augie try to talk Chaim out of taking such a big of risk, but he gets the mortgage, anyway. We’ll get back to Chaim’s situation in a future chapter.

And, as always, if you know someone who might be interested in Lost in Pittsburgh or any of the free stories on this site, please send them a link.

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3/7/2021

After Winning the War vs. Covid,

Will We Do What It Takes to Win the Peace?

The most life-changing of events can seem ordinary at the time. For instance, a single date while I was in college led to a happy marriage now in its fifth decade.

Less-positive stuff can show up that way, too. The current unpleasantness, for instance.

I don’t think anyone knows exactly when the pandemic began. But it started to get real for me almost exactly a year ago. I was attending a funeral and, (per custom in those days), the other attendees and I shook hands.

One person—and one person only—used hand-sanitizer after each touch. I decided I should start doing that, too.

And the rest—masks, distancing, frequent hand-washing, et al—is, as they say, history.

I’m a news junky, and from what I gather most scientists figure we’ll eventually beat Covid. But given uncertainties like vaccine distribution snafus, mistrust and mutation of the virus itself, no one’s foolish enough to forecast a date for the end of this war.

Even so, after V-Day, what might “normal” look like?

Lots of us long to once again hug loved ones we don’t live with. Enjoy unmasked gatherings with family and friends. Have an unworried meal in a restaurant.

The good old days, right?

But here’s the thing. Some aspects of those pre-pandemic days were awful. For instance, the gap between rich and poor was widening then, and has yawned wider still over the past year. Racial tensions, already on the rise, have only worsened. And equal access to health care remains more concept than reality.

Eventually, we’ll win the war against Covid.

Afterward, will we do what takes to win the peace?

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3/1/2021

Flash Novel, Chapter 4

Ever have a day when you feel lousy, even though you should feel great? That’s Nina’s dilemma in Chapter 4 of the flash novel Lost in Pittsburgh. To celebrate a big career accomplishment, co-workers take Nina out for drinks. But that doesn’t change her mood. So what the heck’s going on? Check out any or all of the first four chapters here.

Coming up: Chapter 5. In the next installment, Augie’s career seems to be taking off. And Nina thinks she’s solved a big problem. So what could go wrong?

Vaxxing, Part II: I got my second COVID vaccination this week. Some people have felt lousy afterward for a day or two, but all I had was a slightly achy arm for a day. From what I hear and read, the more of us who are vaccinated, the less chance for the virus to mutate into something even more awful. And the sooner all of us can get back some version of a normal life. Bottom line: If you’re eligible, get the blessed shot.

PS: I used to help large organizations communicate with their stakeholders. While pandemic-related communication under President Biden has been infinitely superior to that of his predecessor, much of it still has been muddled and confusing. Is it easier to be an armchair quarterback than execute on the field? Oh, yeah. Even so, sometime soon I’ll devote a blog to second-guessing what’s gone wrong and how to fix it.

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2/22/2021

Reality is an Allusion

A college lit teacher reports that her students—literature majors, for crying out loud—simply ignore allusions—passing references to a person, event, thing or part of another text. In doing so, they often miss the point, or at least much of the point.

How do allusions work? Consider the film version of The Wizard of Oz. Near the end of the movie Dorothy, having learned there’s no place like home, clicks her heels three times to get back to the place she belongs.

But suppose a fictional character in another film or story or poem says, “I did not to click my heels three times.” By making a choice different from Dorothy’s, the character implies that he or she already is in the right place. (Even if that place is bizarre as Oz.)

Or, at the risk of being both self-referential and self-serving, consider my flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh. A cop asks Augie, the main character, “Sir, why are you here?” In return, Augie asks if the officer is an existentialist.

Kind of amusing, (at least, I think so).

Augie understands the cop is asking a literal question, but chooses to respond as if it were the beginning of a philosophical discussion. More to the point, existentialists believe—and sure, this is an enormous oversimplification—but existentialists believe that we define our own meaning, that what we are is what we decide to be. Over the course of the narrative, Augie will have to decide the kind of person he wants to be.

But suppose a reader who knows nothing about Wizard finds the clicking of heels three times an odd turn of phrase. Nearly everyone has a phone, right? A web search of click heels three times brings up more than 33 million results. Existentialist turns up nearly 10 million hits. Petrarch: 3 million. Pandora: 255 million. And on, and on.

Here’s the point: Allusions nuance and/or add to a reader’s appreciation of a narrative or poem. Without them, a lot of writing might end up weary, stale, flat and unprofitable.

Next time: Chapter 4 of the flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh. Career-wise, Nina’s at the top of her game. So what’s bugging her?

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2/7/2021

Happy Anniversary!

This site went live one year ago this month.

In some ways, it’s gone exactly as I expected. You (and anyone else) can now read nearly two dozen flash fiction stories for free, usually with a blog commentary on each story as it posts. And a number of readers have gotten in touch with me to comment, criticize or just make an observation. Please keep it coming!

One difference I didn’t foresee was in blog topics during weeks without a new story post. During those weeks, I planned to write about writing. Sometimes I did that. But just after the site went live, all hell broke loose: Pandemic. Divisive politics. Overt hatred at a mind-blowing level. So the blog also sometimes addressed those issues.

Where does the site go from here? Maybe some more experiments, like the flash novel Lost in Pittsburgh, the first two chapters of which you can read here. (Chapter three should be along in a week, or so.)

But what do you think? Let me hear from you about what to start, stop or continue. And, I’m always looking for more readers. If you know someone else who might like what we do here, please send them a link to something you've enjoyed.

Coming up: Chapter 3 of Lost in Pittsburgh

As noted above, Chapter 3 will be along soon. In chapters 1-2 we met the two main characters. Augie Olszewski is a cynic in late middle age who’s been meandering through life. The meandering—that’s going to change for Augie and the people around him, in ways they can’t imagine. Nina Frey is a successful mutual fund manager and self-described “alpha,” who once thought she wanted to be a nun. Big changes in store for her, too.

Stay tuned.

1/31/2021

Flash Novel Chapter Two: Meet Nina Frey:

Mutual Fund Manager and Ex-Nun

(Plus, a Report on Being Vaxxed)

Chapter Two of my flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh, is from the point of view of Nina Frey. She’s the significant other of Augie Olszewski, whom you met in Chapter One.

Nina is a successful mutual fund manager, a self-described “alpha.” Why would she get involved with an unambitious cynic like Augie? For that matter, why was Nina once a nun? And why was she asked to leave?

Check out either or both chapters here.

On being Vaxxed

This week I got my first dose of COVID vaccine at a site run by the local hospital where I’d signed up.

Like most people, I want all the immunity I can get. But the invitation did present a sort of ethical dilemma. Other than being over 65—and, yeah, overweight—I’m not particularly at risk. Would someone else benefit more from the dose I received?

From what I’d read, people who know more about this stuff than I do urged anyone offered the vaccination to take it. So I did.

I masked-up, went to the location and stood in a distanced line for about 20 minutes to register. Registration probably took less than five minutes. Then, maybe 10 minutes later I received the vaccination, itself.

Pretty much like a routine flu shot. I understand that others sometimes feel lousy for the next day or two. But all I had was a little arm soreness, which went away in less than 48 hours.

The New York Times has an excellent Q/A all about the vaccine. Check it out here.

Totally unsolicited advice: If you’re eligible but haven’t yet signed up for the vaccine, check your state or local health department to find out how and get into the queue. When the offer comes, make an appointment. And keep it.

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1/24/2021

Of Interesting Times…and Other Random Thoughts

Insurrection. Impeachment. COVID vaccine snafus.

How is everyone else enjoying 2021, so far? Do you keep remembering that ancient curse: May you live in interesting times?

I was mulling the curse when I remembered a line from the movie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Pure fantasy, but fun. Set in the early days of the 20th Century the hero, played by an aging Sean Connery, is warned by a much younger man that the British Empire is in peril. Connery says, “You're too young to know this, but the empire is always in some sort of peril.”

As a nation—as a species, for crying out loud—we face a host of vexing problems whose solutions are complex as they are elusive. We’ve always been in some sort of peril. We got past those times. Can we do it again?

Baseball’s Hank Aaron died this week. He was great player, a quietly effective civil rights advocate and, from what I read, a Hall-of-Fame human being. I couldn’t help thinking of three less-famous people taken by COVID—people who lived on the same block I do. Not to mention the two million others I’ve never met. John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare, said it best when he wrote that the death of anyone…

…diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

On a less-somber note, Chapter 2 of my flash novel, Lost in Pittsburgh, will go up in a week or so. In the meantime, you can read Chapter 1 now. (Should take only about five minutes of your time. Maybe less.) In that chapter you’ll meet Augie Olszewski, a cynic in late middle age who’d been meandering through life. The meandering—that’s going to change for Augie and the people around him, in ways they can’t imagine.

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Read flash novel

Read Lost in PIttsburgh

1/17/2021

Submitted for Your Approval:

Chapter One of a New Flash Novel

I hope you’ll check out the first chapter of my “flash novel,” Lost in Pittsburgh.

Chapter One introduces Augie Olszewski, a cynic in late middle age who’d been meandering through life. The meandering—that’s going to change for Augie in ways they can’t imagine.

Another observation…In Chapter One Augie has a confrontation of sorts with a cop. At first, Augie plays it for laughs and the policeman is patient. I wrote that section a few years before police violence against people of color was the issue it rightfully has become (and should have been a long time ago). It didn’t occur to me then, but now—with all that has happened since, and on the eve of Martin Luther King Day—I see the scene as a sort of study in White privilege.

In Chapter Two, which probably will go up in a couple of weeks, we meet Nina Frey. She’s Augie’s significant other, a former nun who now is a successful investment manager.

I hope you like this first chapter and those to come. As always, anyone who’s requested it will receive an email notice for this and all new content on the website as it’s added. If you’d like to join that email list, (and I hope you do), you can let me know here.

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1/11/2021

At a Loss for Words?

Maybe 50 years from now a brilliant PhD candidate will find words, (lots of words, if it’s a dissertation), to explain what happened at the Capitol last week.

There probably will be a long chapter or two about what we as a people did after that.

The usual pundit suspects of all political stripes have busily put forth their own solutions. Most require other people to come to their senses. Change their beliefs. Think differently.

I can’t help reflect back on a couple of personal experiences. In one, a self-improvement course instructor often posed a question: Who can you change? The answer, of course, is no one but yourself.

How to change? A clergyman once suggested praying for a person I strongly disliked. Thoughts lead to action, and it’s hard to work against someone on whose behalf you’ve petitioned The Almighty. For those who don’t pray, consider sending positive energy that person’s way. Same principle.

None of this is to excuse violence, hatred or prejudice.

But it is to suggest that fixing the mess we're in begins with trying to figure out where those with whom we disagree are coming from. Not so much to be understood as to understand.

PS: The next fiction post will be an experiment, of sorts. Not a short story, but the first chapter of a flash novel—10,000 words or so, with no chapter longer than 1,000 words. Free to read, as always. If you’ve already asked for notification of new content, you’ll automatically get an email when I post. If you haven’t asked for notification, you can check out the site any time, or sign up for an alert here.

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12/30/2020

Blogger Courageously Refuses to Follow Year-End Pattern

One of my holiday-related irritations is the tendency of TV, radio, newspapers and bloggers to basically take the week off by recycling their old stuff. Think headlines like “Best of,” “Year in Review,” and on and on.

That’s certainly something I could do on this blog. For instance, I could write about three of my favorite stories on 2020. Something like:

Babysitting Michael. A pair of aging hippies demonstrate non-violent confrontation for their young grandson. Remember Chicago in '68? Perfect for boomers who lived through the sixties, and non-boomers who wish they had. If the story had background music, it would be the Beatles’ “When I’m 64.” But in a minor key.

The English-Only Rule. Set in Detroit during the Depression, the daughter of Polish immigrants comes of age. Like “Babysitting Michael,” this narrative is wistful and even funny in places. While the ending here is sad, I happen to think it’s fairly positive. See if you agree.

Raptured. A treat for your inner-cynic. Getting fired in this workplace occurs at the end of the day. By morning, all evidence one ever worked there will have been erased. Tragedy? Maybe not in this case.

See how easy it is to take what’s already exists and re-purpose it for an end-of-year blog?

I also could ask readers to write and tell me about their favorite stories on this site. A post consisting mostly of their comments would allow me to take yet another week off.

But that’s not something I’d ever stoop to. No way.

Happy New Year, everyone! And please read responsibly.

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12/20/2020

About the story “Epiphany”

Spoiler alert: This blog is full of details about “Epiphany.”

In Christian tradition, three astrologers came to Bethlehem in search of the Christ child. The story many of us are familiar with is short on details, so I filled in a few.

As a believer, I struggled with this piece. I constantly second-guessed myself, wondering if what I’d written was consistent with that I believe.

For instance, the main character is a cynic, a con-artist who uses astrology to separate the gullible from their money. Is that okay?

I think so. Nothing in the official chronicle suggests any of the magi had fewer flaws than the rest of us. More important, in the end, the main character makes three choices, choosing rightly each time. First, setting personal risk aside, he concocts a plan to save the infant Jesus from death at the hands of King Herod. Second, he give up his con and opens a legitimate business in a backwater where his family will be safe, should the king seek vengeance.

But that plan has unforeseen consequences, leading to choice #3. Herod, still unable to identify the specific infant he considers a threat to his throne, kills every boy in Bethlehem under the age of two. Feeling responsible for that atrocity, the main character considers suicide. He’s about to hang himself. But—choice #3—he remembers his duty to be a father to his own son, and decides to live.

I wrestled with the conclusion more than any part of the story. As the son comes of age, a reader familiar with Christian tradition understands something the main character doesn’t. His son is Judas, Christ’s betrayer.

The man who saved Jesus fathers the man who gave him up. I suppose you could read that—or even the whole story—as suggesting individuals have no agency.

But another view—my view—is just the opposite. The story is full of choices. Bad stuff can flow from good decisions; good stuff from bad ones. Who among us knows our place in history?

There’s a saying: People plan and God laughs. The best we can do is make a good choice in the moment.

Happy holidays, everyone. Stay safe.

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12/15/2020

There's Tech...and Then There's Tech

So, my phone died and I went without it for a week.

Don’t worry. This will not be yet more blah-blah about rediscovering the joys of silence, the simple pleasure of time to reflect, or living in the real. (Not even sure why a phone would necessarily be an impediment to those things. But, hey, that’s just me.)

My phone problem did get me to thinking about technology and the way we adapt. Two of my grandparents lived from the era of the horse-and buggy into Space Age—the kind of change that could’ve been be

wildering. But as far as I can tell, none of that set their heads to spinning.

Then I started to think about myself. (Funny how that happens.) When I was born, writers like me smithed words on a typewriter. Revision is the key to good writing. But in those days, if you wanted to revise much, you started over with a blank sheet of paper. Time-consuming, not to angst-inducing when a deadline loomed.

Then came word processors. Giant machines whose commands you had to memorize to get what you wanted. But once you did that, revision was a dream. Eventually, desktop computers and software made the job even easier and the finished produce better than it otherwise would have been.

On the other hand, my own parents never did quite figure out how to use the internet and rarely removed their cell phones from a drawer. They got all the information they thought they needed from TV and newspapers. By that time they didn’t travel much, so a mobile phone had little to offer over a landline.

Some folks like new tech just because it’s bright and shiny. That’s fine. But the rest of us get interested only about stuff that actually improves our lives.

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11/30/2020

Cliché of the Year: A [Fill in the Blank] Like No Other?

Notice how often the phrase like no other creeps into news reports and conversations? A public health crisis like no other. A divisive political climate like no other. An economy like no other.

Like no other is rapidly acquiring the status of a cliché.

To be sure, clichés achieve their status because there’s a good deal of truth to them. Most of us know at least one person struck by COVID. Partisan politics have divided families and ended friendships. Economic hard times threaten immediate calamity for some, even as it exacerbates the chasm between the richest and poorest Americans.

But is this really a time like no other?

Where pandemics are concerned, early in the Twentieth Century the Spanish flu took countless lives and disrupted whole societies. Political divisiveness? During the American Civil War, family members took up arms against each other. Meanwhile, the Great Depression remains a benchmark for economic catastrophe.

So why do we persist in describing our time as like no other? Probably because what most of us know about other horrible events comes from history books, rather than experience.

To cite another cliché, this time, it’s personal.

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11/24/2020

Thanksgiving, Robinson Crusoe, and a Glass Half-Full?

When I started this blog, I promised myself not to write about the usual stuff around holidays. Well, this Thanksgiving I’m going rogue.

2020 has been the most difficult year many of us have lived through. Hopefully, the toughest any of us will ever experience.

Remember Robinson Crusoe? Shipwrecked and alone on an island, he made a list of “evil” and “good” things—things for which he was thankful. It begins:

Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery.

Good: But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship’s company were.

Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable.

Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship’s crew, to be spared from death…

A glass-half-full kinda guy, this Crusoe.

Our individual lists will vary. But broadly speaking, here’s one way to look at where we stand today. (Crusoe’s “Evil” is a freighted word in modern English, so let’s rename that category “bad.” )

Bad: We’re in the midst of a pandemic that has caused more death and suffering than any of us could have imagined. It’s unsafe to visit in person with loved ones outside our own household, a particular hardship during the holidays.

Good: But we’re told three effective vaccines are on the way. In the meantime, masks plus distancing plus hygiene can help slow COVID’s spread. Podding can be a mixed bag, but in many cases it’s brought us closer to each other. And many now have a better appreciation for workers we may have taken for granted. Health-care folks, for sure. But also those who stock and deliver groceries, postal workers, people who bring packages to our doorstep. (An incomplete summary, but you get the idea.)

Bad: Politically, we’re as deeply divided as at any time since the Civil War. Friends are no longer friends, and some family members no longer speak to each other.

Good: But voter participation reached new highs in November. More Americans than ever understand that policy and the people who implement it matter to them, personally. The twists and turns of the post-election season have been a giant civics lesson for many of us.

Bad: Job losses, foreclosures, and business closings in a time of pandemic—economically, many are suffering through no fault of their own.

Good: But maybe—just maybe—more of us have a better understanding of the gaps in “safety net” programs and the ever-widening chasm between the obscenely rich and everyone else. Maybe—again, just maybe—the experience will lead to better policy all around.

This list, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Readers: What do you think? Drop me a line.

In the meantime, have a great holiday! And stay safe.

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11/16/2020

Public Broadcasting: Keeping “Viewers Like You”

I was thinking about a writing a short story in which public broadcasting would be an element when I received a fund-raising email from the local PBS affiliate: Philos + Anthropos. Show us some love.

I smiled. Who else would lead with Greek words that happen to be the roots of philanthropy? I also was a little flattered the sender thought I was smart enough to see how clever they were.

But a moment later, I realized this was the problem with public broadcasting in 2020. The organization’s head tends to be stuck in a past when it often was the sole source of quality drama, documentaries and mindful children’s programming.

That near-monopoly ended with the dawn of cable TV more than forty years ago. In recent years, streaming services—which charge a user fee but have no interruption for commercials or fund-raising—have made for fierce competition.

So why do people like me continue to support public television? In my case, not because I’m smarter than everyone else. (Or even anyone else.)

It’s because I like some of the programs, many of which can be streamed. I think of my PBS contribution the way I think about the monthly fee for a service like Netflix. And there’s a dollop of nostalgia for the days when PBS really was unique.

For all that, organizations that fail to change with the times tend shrivel up and blow away. So what’s PBS to do? I hope they keep some of the shows I watch and the kid fare. But it seems to me there’s a crying need for expanded, objective news.

Sure, on the national level, there are three big cable news networks. But each deliberately puts a right or left spin on the news. I rarely watch.

Local TV news too often consists of a reporter shoving a microphone into the face of crime or disaster victims to ask how they feel. And, given consolidation within the industry, conglomerate owners often dictate a slant on much of the rest.

There are big obstacles to beefing up local and national news coverage, of course. Mostly money. Yeah, lots of money.

But expanded, straightforward new coverage is also an opportunity for PBS, if it wants to keep “viewers like you.” And me.

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