December 7, 2020
Last night was shattered by a call from a dear friend. She told me that a man we all love and respect, a good man in the prime of his life has been diagnosed with a life threatening illness. A pawl has descended over us. We echo that favorite question of all needy Christians: "Why, God, why?" And the response does not come. I saw a t-shirt that had a huge 2020 printed on it. Underneath there was the outline of five stars, with only one filled in. The review said: "Very bad. Would not visit again."
November 23, 2020
Thanksgiving…iving...iving.."Last March, at the beginning of our romance with this virus, I never thought that on Thanksgiving of this year I'd be planning a big gathering for two at a restaurant of our choice. My whole life I've never been at a Thanksgiving dinner with fewer than 18 people--at home with too many cooks in the happy bustling kitchen. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Since we're planning on going to a restaurant, I feel lucky we're in Indiana. I hear California now requires masks to be worn between bites and sips in restaurants there...
November 6, 2020
Kids are being taught in school today that everyone is racist--they claim we don't even know it, but we are all definitely racists. Personally, I hate that kind of thinking. It is a dangerous message. If people believe they are racist, they then have the propensity to forgive themselves for racist thoughts, ideals, and actions. Nope. Not going to do that. I have lots of friends who are white and who are black. I've never heard a racist remark from any of them. They all have friends in various communities of color and think nothing of it. Yet these kids' teachers insist we don't know our own minds. Well, thanks, but no thanks.The big divider Jim and I have witnessed is not skin color...
October 21, 2020
Indianapolis is a war zone. In a tweet this morning, Rev. Charles Harrison, leader of The Indy TenPoint Coalition, referred to our city as the Wild Wild West. He said, "So far this weekend we have had 18 people shot, 1 person stabbed, and 4 people killed, bringing the total to 192 homicides so far this year." A record. We hear reports of these deaths and can't believe this continues in our city..
October 7, 2020
In the midst of a deepening political divide that destroys friendships and breaks up families, I recently came upon a book* that might help us bridge that great chasm between the right and left. It is interesting that data shows that people on both sides of the political debate feel that they are motivated by love, while the other side is motivated by hate. The 2016 election brought these feelings to a fever pitch. People didn't just disagree with each other, they dismissed each other entirely...
September 21, 2020
We have lost much during the time of Covid-19. Loved ones, our jobs, some have lost entire businesses. We have been shut off from our friends, unable to hug or even shake hands, which for those of us who are huggers--is a big deal. A lot of talk has been about what we can't do and can't have. There are no crowds at football games this fall. Our favorite restaurant is closed...
September 7, 2020
For some time now we've been fighting along side Indiana Institute For Working Families to lower the interest rate cap on short term pay day loans.Anyone with a social security check, or low paying job can borrow quickly and easily from one of the many pay day loan companies that operate here. The catch is they'll pay a whopping 371 percent effective interest rate*. A rate that often saddles the borrower with interminable debt.These loans harm the families we serve, keeping them forever in debt, and without proper funds for essentials--food for their families...
August 21, 2020
I have a neighbor who started a business on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis decades ago. Business was not always easy, but they survived, employed others, paid rent and taxes, and lived on whatever was left. Just as his business was allowed to reopen after the mandated shut down, a number of homeless people camped outside his front door. Some, he said, pursued his clients. Others left deposits on the sidewalk, still others were dealing drugs. Customers called and told the shop owner they had to go elsewhere. Diving deeper in debt, he let his employees go and closed for good...
August 7, 2020
There is actually a course offered at some medical schools called Empathetics. It was developed by a psychiatrist who was working with anorexic patients--a population some thought simply refused to eat. Many young girls were dying of starvation, and the words "just eat" were not working. But when clinicians were trained in empathy and trained to listen to the often traumatic experiences that kept anorexics from eating normally, they could be helped. I know a man that is embroiled in a lawsuit with a former business partner. They were boyhood friends, the families were close. But based on some life difficulties, they had differences. Instead of using empathy and trying to work through the issues dividing them, the company is now pretty much gone...
July 21, 2020
I've got to stop watching the news. It's too hard to see the violence and hate. An argument over a Black Lives Matter vs. all lives matter ended in a woman being shot in the head--right here on the Canal Walk in Indianapolis. She was a mother with two small children, and whatever any of us thinks about her views, her murder is tragic. Have we all gone stark raving mad?
