The revolution starts next Tuesday...right after soccer practice!
Print from "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" by Kay Nielsen, 1914 Author's Note: I was so grateful and honored to be asked to give a sermon on the subject of story for the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in May 2021. I know I'm a lazy blogger, but I'm far from a lazy writer. This assignment was a gift of grace that helped me to process some ideas that have been floating around in my…
Sermon given Sunday, December 13, 2020 for Magic ValleyUnitarian Universalist Fellowship Zoom Worship Service I am so grateful to be here with you virtually today and look forward to the time when we can be together again in physical space. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts about this month’s theme: stillness. Like many of us during this year of global pandemic and…
Ready or Not, the Future Is Now—and It Doesn’t Have to Be Dystopian Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels Many of us in higher education received emails last week about either taking our classes online or preparing to do so. If you’re anxious about the next several weeks, imagine how your students are feeling! Many of them have avoided online classes or have had a negative experience with one in…
Why I went an entire year without posting to my blog Well, I mean, no one reads your blog anyway, right? A year ago today in 2018, I was fidgeting on the examination table at my ob/gyn’s office, a paper drape wrapped awkwardly around my legs. I take these women ‘s health things pretty seriously; in 2012, I was diagnosed with Stage 0 cervical cancer (or carcinoma in situ) , which really isn’t as…
Image from http://voteblue.blogspot.com/ Why Voting Blue Is the Right Thing to Do for Compassionate Conservative Republican Women If you ask me why I’m a registered Republican, I can answer with two words: liberty and opportunity. For me, since I was young, liberty and opportunity have been my definition of the American Dream. While I identify with traditional conservatives on many issues like…
Madam Mao Tells a Cautionary Tale about What Happens to Women Who Seek Power The story could have been taken straight from the U.S. 2016 presidential election headlines. A powerful former first lady seeks to follow in her husband’s political footsteps, but instead of assuming the nation’s highest office, she is destroyed by chants of “Lock her up!” While Hillary Clinton’s lofty political…
Star Wars and the Hero's Journey by Rachel Scheller , Telling Stories that Matter This is the text of a sermon I delivered to the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (BUUF) on Sunday, July 22, 2018. I teach a popular online course at the College of Western Idaho called “Survey of World Mythology.” [1] Every semester, my students start the course thinking that they are going to learn about…
Families belong together https://www.familiesbelongtogether.org/ Thoughts on Kant, Fox News, the Bible, and the Separation of Children and Families at the Border Dear Conservative Friend, I am taking the time to write this to you after unfriending you on Facebook so that you will understand that I share your sorrow at losing a lifetime of close friendship over a single U.S. government policy: the…
x It’s easy to blame mental illness, but we fail to mention that treatment works and recovery is possible for many. For mothers of teenagers like me, news about a school shooting never gets any easier. We experience the same dread, the same despair, the same fear that someone will attack our children’s school. In between mass shootings, we drill our children on what they would do. We check on…
Cosmic Webs, Neurological Disorders, and Human Compassion Image credit: GUI.Brush Blog, http://www.codres.de/2013/01/cosmic-web-vs-brain-neural-network On a recent Friday evening, I took my 12-year-old daughter to a free Boise State University public astronomy lecture presented by Dr. Christy Tremonti , assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who leads a sky-scanning…
Christmas Carol 2017 As I ran through the parts to this year’s carol yesterday afternoon, I realized that I have now been composing an annual carol for nearly 20 years. This year, I returned to three-part women’s music, the form I chose for my first carol in 1998. Back then, I had a different last name, and I had not yet discovered music transcription software. A lot of things have changed in 20…
When I think of freedom, an equal and just society is a big part of America’s promise. Photo taken by author at Boise Veteran's Day Parade, November 4, 2017 Defending freedom is a calling for all Americans. On the first Saturday morning in November, I woke up early to attend the annual Boise Veteran’s Day parade . My friend and mentor, Vietnam War veteran Ken Rodgers, was one of four grand…
My son is 18 now, and he deserves affordable healthcare. Why the Cassidy-Graham Healthcare Bill Must Not Become Law Today, I am thinking about two-faced Janus, the Roman god of doorways. Today, my son crosses a threshold from childhood to adulthood. Last night, he went to bed a minor; when he woke up this morning, he was an adult. He seems ready enough. I’m not sure I am. Today, on my son’s 18 th…
I don't want to be a perennial. I just want to take a nap. Detail from "The Garden of Earthly Delights," by Heironymus Bosch, c. 1490-1510 Why I Don’t Want to Be a Perennial On a golden Friday summer afternoon sometime in 2017, I tripped and fell. One minute, I was walking home from the neighborhood pool with my tweens (a new word that, like so many things, seems to have been invented by marketers…
The author and her sister on Pioneer Day in Provo, Utah Learning How to Feel Human Again after a Faith Transition Note: This is the text of a sermon I gave at the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday, July 23, 2017. I tend to ad lib quite a bit, so the audio at https://boiseuu.org/audio/ may differ from this written version. Also, talking about my faith transition still terrifies me.…
How the Affordable Care Act Helps Working Families Like Mine A few years ago, I woke up one morning and realized that I was miserable. It was becoming increasingly clear that the career I had chosen was not the right fit for my skills. I knew what I really wanted to do: I wanted to teach in the classroom again. But as the breadwinner for my family of six, I felt like I had no choice but to stay…
You're Covered! New reality show helps deserving Americans access affordable healthcare. New Reality Television Show Lets Patients Pitch Their Healthcare Woes to Wealthy Republicans Fox announced yesterday that a new reality show, You’re Covered! will air as part of its weekly line-up this fall. The show, billed by its producers as “a cross between Shark Tank and The Apprentice with a warm, fuzzy…
Lessons from The Book of Donald 5:1-12 Image from HuffPost Facebook timeline Now when he saw the crowds, the master tweeted, “Truly, we’ve had so much winning.” Then he began to teach his disciples, saying, Blessed are the rich, for theirs is the Kingdom of Men. Blessed are those who mourn the loss of white privilege, for they shall be celebrated Blessed are the bold, for they will create jobs.…
Who cares whether Donald Trump has mental illness? (Hint: Whether or not he has mental illness does not matter) Let’s be clear: I hate Donald Trump as much as the next freedom-loving American. Trump is a self-described sexual predator, a liar, a xenophobe, a racist, and a bad businessman. His friends and advisors include white supremacists like Steve “Darth” Bannon, formerly of Breitbart fame, now…
“Ring out the false; ring in the true!”—Alfred, Lord Tennyson As I scrolled through my friends’ Facebook feeds on New Year’s Eve 2016, noting the pictures of dumpster fires, the scornful expressions of “good riddance,” the laments of trepidation for the future, I also noticed that for many people, 2016 was actually a very good year for personal and professional growth. 2016 was certainly a good…
I have been composing an annual Christmas carol since 2001, when I wrote, "A Stable, a Manger, a Star in the Sky," inspired by Alfred Burt's lovely "Star Carol." This year, as I sat down at the piano on Christmas Eve, the phrase "Love Trumps Hate" was foremost in my mind. Like many who lived through the U.S. presidential elections of 2016, I am afraid. I fear for my three sons, who will all be…
We can end abortion in ten months—if we do one simple thing. Dear Governor Pence, In 1729, Jonathan Swift proposed a solution to unplanned pregnancies. In 2016, I have a better idea. One that does not involve cannibalism. You and I don’t have much in common. I didn’t vote for you. But you’ve suggested that you are interested in being a vice president for all Americans, so I thought I’d share my…
Halloween Insane Asylums , Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton’s Emails A month or so ago, I took the unusual (for me) step of unfriending and blocking someone on social media. The woman in question is someone I consider to be a friend IRL (in real life). But after I deli vered several polite but increas ingly stern private warnings about her posts on my personal Facebook page , she crossed a line.…
This is a guest blog by super-advocate Jennifer Marshall of ThisIsMyBrave.org . Thanks, Jenn, for all you do and for letting me share this important social media campaign! Jennifer Marshall, the #FaceOfMentalIllness Every Halloween mental illness seems to be exploited and mocked for entertainment value and profit. Companies using horrible images of mental patients or mental hospitals, and even…
Walmart’s suicide costume is an affront to decency and morality My son at age four “Why do you tear me? Is there no pity left in any soul?” Dante’s Inferno Canto VIII, John Ciardi trans. I’ll never forget the first time my child talked about suicide. He was four years old, sniffling and shivering after a several-hour fit of thrashing, incoherent rage. As I rubbed his white-down hair and cuddled…