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Musical Theatre is Magic
I have just come home after a fabulous week in which I saw three Broadway shows with my younger son, Jamie, and his partner; we saw Hamilton, The Humans, and Avenue Q. All were wonderful, each for...
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Real Stories, Real People: When Your Child’s Gender Changes, So Do You
There was a deep-seated resistance tied to some happy moments in the past that I didn’t want to let go of. My therapist said something then that has stayed with me ever since. He said “You are one …...
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Seasonal Affective Decision-making
How it works This how seasonal affective disorder works. It keeps you in the house, makes you regret every bad decision you ever made, bashes you over the head with your personal shortcomings, and...
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To See Us All Just Getting Along, Ride the Bus
Source: Edmonton Transit System We can all get along. I know because I’ve seen us do it. On Saturday I took the bus downtown, as I do on most weekends. It’s about a thirty-minute ride and in that time...
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The Surprising Walloons
International Business Image by Pete Linforth A week ago I would have guessed that the Walloons were characters in a Dr. Seuss story. I would have been so wrong. They are, in fact, French-speaking...
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Multicultural Remembrance
Remembrance Day. Source: Silverleaf at Jubilee Newsletter The day after the US election I had a terrible hangover and I hadn’t even been drinking. I had waited and waited for something, anything, to...
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Clutter Doesn’t Matter . . . Really
“Messy Room” from Michigan Houses Online My sons and their partners are wonderful people. They are all intelligent, hard-working, creative, socially active, politically aware, engaging...
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What Can Be Worse Than Homelessness?
Talking About Giving Bell Ringers from John Martinez Pavliga (CC BY 2.0) Deciding how to contribute to charity has become really complicated. I used to just put a dollar or two into the cups of...
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What Women Don’t Want
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps from WWII Letters I’m developing a theory. My theory is that women, or most women anyway, aren’t much interested in joining armies. We prefer to join forces in more subtle...
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You Can Do Anything
Today I realized that some people view the people who joined the Women’s March as whiners and misandrists. They think we are sore losers, or people who didn’t vote and now regret it. They think we...
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If You See Something, Say Something
If you see something, say something. Homeland Security has used this phrase to help combat terrorism, but it has value in other circumstances, too. They were the words going through my head when I saw...
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Investments
Given the number and significance of the lies being told by various politicians and their representatives, why do they still have loyal supporters? It must be a kind of sunk cost fallacy: having...
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Looking Back
Looking Back on History by Chocolatemedia via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) I’ve done a lot of looking back over the last couple of weeks. I have been visiting with some of the members of my UK...
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A Bully is Really Just a Little Pecker
It takes a special kind of perversity to use a handshake, the symbol of connection and cooperation, as a tool in establishing control. Pecking orders are about establishing dominance and social...
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One Thing Leads to Another in Unexpected Ways
This is the story of how a bracelet goes missing and a hairdresser gives good advice. How It All Started The morning that I was due to leave London and return to Canada, a bomber in Manchester killed...
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When A Bad Memory Can Be A Good Thing
Queen Mary with Ladies-in-Waiting 1911 by J. Fortesque via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) On Wednesday, I was a lady-in-waiting. I’m not so well-connected as a royal lady-in-waiting, but I am right up there...
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Looking at Old Stuff with Old People
When you go to a museum with old people, you don’t see artifacts, you see memories. I had the pleasure of visiting the Innisfail Historical Village yesterday in the company of a busload of people...
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Finding the Ingredients for Mental Health
We tend to think of mental health as an all-or-nothing kind of thing. You either have it or you don’t. Lately I’ve been thinking that there are so many contributing factors to mental health that it is...
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Alzheimer’s, Caregiving, and Hasty Judgements
There is a Facebook post doing the rounds of the social networks that has come my way a few times now. It tells the story of a young woman, Melinda, who comes across an older woman, Mary, who is lost....
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Oh, Mr. Darcy!
Colin Firth now has Italian citizenship! Isn’t that amazing? It comes as a shock to think of that charming, erudite, upper-crust, fellow with the plummy accent becoming an Italian. We all think of him...
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