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COMMUNICATION SKILLS: MEN TRYING TO HEAR WOMEN

Communication skills are complicated to say the least. If I had one wish, I’d wish men listened to women better than they do. Though you can never know how you’re interpreted, why not try harder? What do women want? Let’s start there:

THE GOOD FIGHT FOR A SHARED FUTURE

I like a good fight as much as I don’t like a bad fight. As for a shared future? If it’s not shared it can’t happen. While I’m not a political writer or activist I am a fan of both and I have experiences for the buy-in. They come from two things: age and paying […]

HUMAN BONDING BENT BUT NOT BROKEN

If you over-analyze how life on earth works it comes down to one thing: human bonding. Call it trust, call it faith, because those are the ingredients. As humans we are bound by trust and faith in the recipe for human bonding. Take your car for instance:

CLIMATE WRITING: IS IT HOT IN HERE OR JUST ME?

Climate writing, climate change writing, global warming writing, are all stories to tell. The problem is those telling aren’t doing a very good job. Could I do better? Me? Hell, no. But maybe you could. Maybe you could tell it so it gets under the thick skin of big decision makers? I have ideas to […]

ELECTED OFFICIALS TAKE OFFICE AFTER ELECTIONS AND VOTE COUNT? HOLD MY BEER

Elected officials come to office by many paths. Some feel strongly about making a difference and run a political campaign as a difference maker. Others fill a seat by appointment. And still others cheat and steal their way in then whine and accuse if they lose. However they get there, the job isn’t done after […]

SCOREBOARD ANSWERS CONFUSING HARD LIFE QUESTIONS

Scoreboard shows winners and losers in a particular moment. Then the contest is over. The winners celebrate, the losers walk away. At least that’s what is supposed to happen.

BE SMART OR BE DEAD, BLUE BLOOD

“Be smart or be dead,” comes from a cop show I watch with my wife. It could be any cop show watched with any wife as long as Tom Selleck is in it. In a recent episode a retired cop stops some shady punk from robbing a cashier by pulling his gun, aiming it at […]

VISIT GRANDMA FOR LESSONS SOONER THAN LATER

My Visit Grandma story is about the first woman elected to the Bend City Council in 1964. My Grandma. I was twelve and she was something. My grandparents were church people who abided by Presbyterian rules. They took it very seriously. As church people do, they made it a big part of their local reputation, […]

AMERICAN PRACTICE: VOTE LIKE IT MATTERS

An American practice is like a medical practice: sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes we get it right and it’s still wrong. If you’re old enough to vote, do it. Vote like it matters and encourage others to do the same. Voting is part of an American practice, like minding our own business and staying […]

ELLEN URBANI MAKES GOOD TROUBLE

Ellen Urbani wrote an essay published in Time Magazine. “Our president wants you to believe I am a terrorist, a professional agitator stalking the Pacific Northwest.“ The title of the essay was, “I’m a Mom Who Came Out to Protest for Black Lives in Portland. I Was Shot by Federal Agents.” That’s where the wheelchair […]