I was hesitant to even start a blog because, let's face it, for many people a blog is just an opportunity to beat us all about the head and shoulders with their opinions and insights. Now, I can't say I will never share an opinion here--in fact, I am quite sure I will, but I do promise not to beat you about the head and shoulders with them!
My goal with this blog is to start dialogs about a variety of topics from all parts of life. When I say "variety of topics," I actually mean "anything that comes to mind." This is because one of my defining characteristics is that I am interested in everything! Big things, little things, practical things, metaphysical things: I think about all of them and I encourage everyone else to think about everything, too. I am not interested in simply justifying my own positions-- in fact, I may not even have a position on a given topic when I bring it up--I am interested in the exchange of ideas and I welcome anyone with an open mind, a kind heart, and a civil tongue (or finger) to weigh in. We don't need to solve anything here, although if we do, well done, us. the point is to stimulate thoughts, research those questions we think about in the shower or in the car, but somehow never follow up on, challenge preconceived notions, and shed new light on old questions. I'm also a very big fan of laughter and lightheartedness.
So, I will be posting reflections on many topics, including serious topical issues, as well as lighthearted questions, and scientific musings. Also, while I am certain willing to do the heavy lifting, it would be great if you submitted your own questions or observations for consideration.
Before we get started, here are few things about me personally, so you have a sense of what to expect from me and where I might come down on issues with social or political implications. I am a baby boomer, who grew up in suburban Washington, D.C., surrounded by public servants, military brass, ambassadors' kids, sports figures, and other folks you don't always encounter on Main Street, U.S.A. Still, we were firmly middle class. We got our first television in 1954 and it was a color TV! We instantly went from being the only family in the neighborhood that had no television to being the only ones who could watch TV in color! We gained a lot of friends that year. This is, as nearly as I can remember, the exact TV we had:
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| http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-59-RCA.htm |
While searching for a photo of a television like the one we got, I discovered this eerily prescient drawing from 1955.
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| http://www.tvhistory.tv/1955-Predictions.JPG |
The following year, we got our first car, a used 1952 Ford Country Sedan, much like this one:
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| http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Ford/1950-1958.html |
My parents were both very political and were quite active in the Republican Party. One of my earliest memories was being forced to trudge around strange neighborhoods putting "Nixon for President" fliers in everyone's doorway. Nixon, at that time, was Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President and he was running for president against JFK. Perhaps those memories sparked what later became a complete inability to relate to almost any plank in a Republican platform...
Interestingly, although my dad was an unabashed, mid-western republican, for reasons he would never articulate, he was also a very passionate supporter of the civil rights movement. We suspected that it had something to do with his experiences in World War II or Korea, but we will never know for certain. After Kennedy won in 1960, my dad took a position in the U.S. Department of Labor heading up a staff of people tasked with strengthening collective bargaining for workers in all industries and developing and enforcing new non-discrimination practices in the workplace. (I'm sure glad he is not here to see the current attacks on collective bargaining: it would break his heart.) This was not a job for chickens. More than once, his life was threatened by mobsters and racists, who opposed any measures to protect the rights of workers, especially minorities.
My mother was unconventional. All the other mothers were homemakers except for the occasional teacher or nurse. Not my mom. She insisted on working, and became one of the first female real estate brokers in Virginia, maybe in the country. She sweet talked another broker into giving her the funds to open her own real estate company and thrived, despite many attempts by competitors to squash the business. Later, a few years after my parents divorced, she uprooted my siblings (I was away in college) and moved to southern Delaware to become a developer. Some of the largest developments in that area today owe their existence to her finagling, persistence, and dogged belief in her own capabilities.
So, I spent my childhood as a suburban white kid in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood, with iconoclastic parents who looked about as white bread and milk as anyone could. I was the oldest child of conservative, Episcopal parents, who grew up to be a guitar-playing, tree-hugging, animal-loving, people-loving, slightly liberal democrat with Buddhist leanings.
Now, I am retired from a career as an environmental bureaucrat, with a nearly college-age daughter, arthritic knees, bad eyes, an aging mother, a mortgage, and more wisdom than I had when I was younger. But I still play the guitar, still care about all the stuff I used to care about, and I still have loads of unanswered questions about life, the universe, and everything!
I'm happy to be here with you and I hope we will have a long and happy association.
Cheers!
Shirley
