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Category Archives: Op/Ed Thoughts
Safety Not Guaranteed
In this ever-changing, pandemic-frought world, the title of one of our favorites movies, Safety Not Guaranteed, could be the headline for our lives. Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Courage, Creativity, Ideas, Knoxville, Op/Ed Thoughts, Screen
Tagged Aubrey Plaza, coronavirus, Denmark, Mark DuPlass, Norway, Safety Not Guaranteed, Taiwan
1 Comment
A Larger Canvas for Our Tiny Boats
When history takes charge, our stories are rewritten in a heartbeat. But history is not the only force of nature. Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Childhood, Courage, Happiness, Ideas, Love, Op/Ed Thoughts
Tagged A Tale of Two Cities, Band of Brothers, Caitlin Flanagan, Charles Dickens, COVID-19, Easy Company, George Bernard Shaw, Georgia, HBO, pandemic, Pearl Harbor, Tennessee, The Atlantic, World War II
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Found Wanting for His Moment in History
Yesterday I learned that Senator Lamar Alexander–one of two senators representing my home state of Tennessee in the U.S. Senate–voted not to call witnesses during the our current President’s impeachment trial in the Senate. I was not surprised, in fact, … Continue reading
Getting Older With Keanu Reeves and the Two-fifths Solution
Finding a way forward in strange times through the work and ideas of Keanu Reeves and Martin Luther King Jr. Continue reading
Posted in Courage, Happiness, Ideas, Love, Op/Ed Thoughts, Screen
Tagged Alexandra Grant, Carrie-Ann Moss, HBO, HBO First Look, John Wick 3: Parabellum, Keanu Reeves, Martin Luther King, The Matrix, The Wachowskis
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Coming Home to Myself
For the ones who had a notion,A notion deep inside,That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive . . . Bruce Springsteen, “Badlands”, 1977 A few months before Bruce Springsteen wrote his elegaic anthem “Badlands”, I left my … Continue reading
Posted in Alzheimer's, Autobiographical, Bruce Springsteen, Childhood, Courage, Creativity, Dementia, Education, Family, Freedom, Happiness, Home, Ideas, Knoxville, Love, Music, Op/Ed Thoughts, Tribute, Women, Writing
Tagged Badlands, Bruce Springsteen, Carroll County, Darcas Nickaline Montgomery Allen, Dear Sister, Home, Kentucky, party line phone, Prestonsburg, Virginia
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The Day the Music Lived
Buddy Holly’s quintessentially American music could have died with him in a plane crash in 1959. But the power of his idiosyncratic genius lives on. Our music is what defines us and our music is what saves us. Continue reading
The Sights & Signs of London
My husband Kurt and I returned Friday from London—the historic city that is roiling with the unanswered question of how the United Kingdom can maneuver itself from membership in the European Union and not wreck its economy. The jury remains … Continue reading
Blooming Out of Season
Nearly a decade ago I planted two camellias in container pots just outside the front door of our home. I never thought they would live for long–in containers, mind you– in the mercurial climate of East Tennessee. But my sister, … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Blooming, Dance, Happiness, Ideas, John Irving, Music, Op/Ed Thoughts, Stage, Women
Tagged Billie Holiday, Blooming, Camellias, Carmen McRae, Growing, Happiness, Maria Cole, Nat King Cole, Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark, Netflix, New Year, Stanley's Greenhouse, Winter
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His Heart’s Eye Is Open
I grieve for each passing year that Daddy is not here to fervently hope that Clemson can beat Alabama for the NCAA football Championship. I grieve that he missed by 11 months seeing his great-grandson Lincoln’s endlessly fascinating face. I … Continue reading
Posted in Alzheimer's, Autobiographical, Childhood, Courage, Family, Happiness, Ideas, Love, Op/Ed Thoughts, Wonder
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Childhood, Daddy, East Tennessee, grief, life, Lincoln, Mary Oliver, New Year's Eve 2018, sorrow, The Uses of Sorrow
1 Comment
Fearful Things
The last week has been excruciating. With tears in my eyes, I watched Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, an outstanding professor and psychology researcher, testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee of her gut-wrenching story of being sexually assaulted when she … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Childhood, Courage, Ideas, Op/Ed Thoughts, Women
Tagged Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, DC circuit, Godless, Merrick Garland, Mitch McConnell, sexual assault, the U.S. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Senate, The U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington
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