lux et amor

We have single-stream recycling (which, yes, I realize may in fact be a scam, but let me think I'm helping the planet, OK?), and it is picked up on the first Wednesday of each month. Super early. So, if we happen to forget to put it out at the curb on Tuesday night, we are screwed for the month. We have our trash and recycling cans lined up fairly close to the end of the driveway, but historically, if the can isn't at the curb, we are out of luck.  (Our garbage company totally spoils us by walking over to our cans if we don't have them at the curb and taking them over to the truck, but that's because we know the owners.) This Wednesday was a very Wednesday-Wednesday. Ever have one of those days? Beyond hectic at work, stress and demands piling up at every turn. You know the kind of day, I am sure.  As I drove home, I was mentally reviewing the home to-do list, more stress adding. As I prepared dinner, I realized that I forgot recycling day. Ugh. Yes, absolutely a first-...

 Last week, I attended a performance of The Mountaintop  at our local community theatre. I'm friends with the director, a young Black man who is a teacher and who has been in productions I've directed and acted in. We've grown close over the past year or so, after some assumptions on both our parts were ironed out and we discovered we had more in common than not.  I knew more than the average audience member about the process that went into this 2-person "simple" show, depicting the night before Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Despite being in a small city, our community theatre struggles to attract actors of color. We have an outreach committee devoted to breaking down barriers, from the audition experience to what it's like to attend a show in our space for the first time. We want to encourage as many voices as we can to share their stories in our -- soon to be their -- space.  A 2-person show is hard, ya'll. There are no freaking breaks for...

This past weekend, my 14-year-old son and I watched The Truman Show, a film that came out the year I graduated high school. It was his idea. "Mom, this is a really great movie," he told me.  I remember when the movie came out, and how it impacted me. There was so much to think about -- the ethics of a "reality"-ish show that involved duping the first child ever adopted by a corporation, a marriage between Truman and a paid actress, the slandering of a woman who truly cared for Truman and tried to tell him the truth, the perfectly synchronized and orchestrated existence of Truman by a man who both loved and wanted to control him.  I remember thinking at the time that there is so much that we just willingly accept without looking any closer -- and this was before I had left my hometown, before I went to college and met people with different skin colors and backgrounds. Boy, did I have a lot to learn back then (and now -- aren't we all works in progress?). My son -...

In February, I had the spectacular privilege to travel to California to visit my son and his wife (and along the way, I was able to visit some friends I haven't seen in over 8 years!). It was incredible to escape the doldrums of February in PA and feel the sun on my face.  There is nothing quite like the Pacific Ocean, and the multitude of ecosystems you can find in California. Along the bay, it's misty and foggy, allowing succulents to grow the size of large pizzas. As we drove up "The One," through Big Sur, we saw beaches, forests, rocky mountains. The variety never seemed to end.  In San Francisco, we watched sea lions fight over which boating dock they wanted to bask on, with Alcatraz casting a shadow from the distance.  We visited redwood trees that could have witnessed the birth of Jesus, the signing of the Magna Carta, and the falling of the Twin Towers. Ever feel like you were pretty important and all your stuff really mattered? Yeah. A redwood will give you i...

Recently, in the area where I live, an article about the arrest of a man who sexually assaulted a minor was published in an online newspaper. The man was named, as was the name of his partner who played a horrific role in the assault. Details, disgusting beyond measure, were also published.  Quickly, the Internet gathered their torches and pitchforks and launched an attack. People commented, sharing social media profiles, physical addresses, and other personal details pertaining to the perpetrators -- and the victim. The child.  It did not take much effort to piece together who the child was, where they went to school, who they were related to, friends with. The Internet, in my opinion, assaulted this child yet again. Intensely private details of this child's trauma were shared, and then shared again, all in the cause of attacking these terrible criminals.  Someone very close to me suffered sexual abuse at the hands of someone who should have protected and cared for them....