From 1975-77 Maybin, still a “non-professional,” taught English as a volunteer for the Immigrant Services Society (ISS) in Vancouver. His students were South Asian women, many of whom had recently arrived and were illiterate, terrified, and desperately in need of language skills that would enable them to navigate the nightmare of shopping for meal ingredients […]
Archives for January 2012
Remember
During the last couple of years I have been exposed to a whole sub culture of people who are presently incarcerated or have recently been incarcerated. A large percentage of these people are caught in a tangled web of addiction and recidivism. It’s heartbreaking to hear the lonely voices, the cries of the broken people […]
Listening to my Gut
We all have them from time to time – strong, emotionally-colored urges to act in ways that make no rational sense and are counterproductive in our current modern society. Our forbears, and conservative Christians even today, ascribed this to “Original Sin” and prescribed prayer and penance as a countermeasure. Classical psychiatry presumes that the roots […]
Rejected Because of Your Communication Skills
I felt a twinge of recognition from both sides of the fence when I read this post from blogger Clarisse Thorn: “When we met for coffee and he did the Let’s-Just-Be-Friends thing, he said it was because of how I communicated. He said: ‘You know, I really like talking to you, and I liked having […]
GIPSPUPPE (GYPSUM DOLL)
A beautiful poem about uprooted refugee children raises awareness of war affected and traumatized children
The Desert Fox – Part One
Our recent trip to Tunisia was not an outstanding success for us. True there was a small but pleasant group of people and as a quick all round insight into Tunisian life, the trip was quite satisfactory but the guide, not being an archaeologist, was not knowledgeable about Tunisian history especially the Roman/Phoenician sites. We […]
Diary of a Smoker
I guess I consider myself “old school” and like to be somewhat reserved yet open to new things and situations. But something changed: I met something who was white but really caramel colored inside and I let her inside me. She knew all my secrets and thoughts and for six years we both knew that […]
Three Icons of American Cinema in 1967
Two seminal American films were released in 1967; each dealt with the issue of racism and each featured one of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time. Both were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture; one of them won the award. The films were In the Heat of the Night and Guess […]
Pathogenic Evil
Do Outbreaks of Evil have an Organic Cause? Martha Sherwood contemplates the idea that perhaps there was a biological cause to the savagery of World War II
Tarmac Meditations: Comin’ 2012
New Years 2012: shot a race by the midnight riverside, went home to sleep for a few hours, dreamt some dreams, more nightmarish than serene. Went back to the riverside, shot another race and caught some dreams, came home to rest, and found, sadly, that when some things begin, some things end…t’was ever thus. Let […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 7
- Next Page »