The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

For days following the killing of George Floyd, the city of Oakland was in flames, if not literally then figuratively. Peaceful protests turned into confrontation which turned into violence leaving the city littered with tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and broken glass. As calm returned and peaceful protest prevailed, the city took a moment, a …

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From the slave trade to the evils of the men we’ve put on pedestals to the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, Rodney King and on to George Floyd how can we possibly say with a national straight face that “We are better than this?”  No we are not better than this.  This is who we are.

Mid-May is past and we’re plunging right into the heart of summer, that time when a schoolboy’s thoughts, in this case grandson Jackson, turns to summer vacation. He hasn’t seen the inside of a classroom in a little over two months but he’s still looking forward to the end of the Zoom Meetings; 45 minutes …

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It was called Decoration Day when I was a child. When first coined, the name reflected the day’s original purpose as stated by General John A. Logan, who led an organization for Northern Civil War Veterans. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves …

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“Unfortunately, we all go through bad phases.” ~ Sushmita Sen (Indian actress) Woo hoo, it’s phase two.  California’s starting to open up, an event I’m greeting with mixed emotions.  On the one hand I’m glad for the small business owners and workers who’ve been holding on through a rough two months and can now start …

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The end of another shelter in place week and we’re officially two months in. This week the weather decided to turn back the clock to the beginning of our lockdown nine weeks ago, mid-March. When it hasn’t been raining this week it’s been blustery and chilly, for the Bay Area that is, a qualifier that …

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May’s begun with the promise, if that’s the right word, of another month of quarantine. Looking out the window at the brightening sky, it gets bright by five these days, it dawns on me that, there will be things that I’ll miss once the shelter in place ends.  That’s if you don’t count not being …

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“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” ~ Marcus Aurelius My first few Covid Chronicle posts began with the daily butcher’s bill, that is the number of coronavirus cases and deaths both worldwide and in …

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Did the minutemen really take up their muskets so 200 years later a lot of selfish people could snivel about not being able to have their nails done or hit the tennis courts or crowd together on the beach?