Writing Reality

  Hands Off Our Bodies As the doctor entered the exam room he asked, “I brought in a resident with me. Would it be okay with you if she watched the procedure?” Seeing a young resident learning about extrusions for a Bartholin’s cyst I replied, “Yes, its okay.” I understood this was her career path. As well, I held some trust of her who was about my age at the time. That was back in December 1990. The white, male doctor at the time was my gynecologist just shy of a decade. He was near age fifty or so. As he directed my feet up into the stirrups, having my gown opened in the front. He quickly began the procedure. Yes, it seemed in a flash he’d stuck a needle up into my vaginal area. I flinched from the entry, for it was painful. He looked at me furrowed his brow and said, “Oh com’on that didn’t hurt.” I was aghast. I held my cool in understanding he didn’t have a vagina. Yes, even at the age of twenty-eight I knew men did not have vaginas. I commented diplomatically, “Sorry. I wa

  What’s Sports Got To Do With It? “In about four years, I’m going to move to a town up north where kids want to run and throw like its their life.” I remarked to another parent at a recent County track and field meet. It wasn’t the first time I stated such. But this year I’ve become more outspoken about the lack of heart of some, when it comes to track and field events. No, it’s not about the spectators attending the meets or perhaps the lack thereof. Nope. It’s not that. Many in our small town appear to be enthused either when in person or online in our parent and sports’ high school’s social media sites. It's about some of the high schoolers performing at the track and field meets. It’s not about the coaches. Part of that is we just don’t have the draw. So, we are sometimes short-handed in having enough coaches. Which I think happens at most small schools. That’s not the issue I’ve arrived at. Track and field meets are seemingly the best times for me to connect with parents

  La, La, La, La, La, La… Remember when you didn’t want to hear what someone had to say as a kid? You’d put your hands over your ears and made the La, La, La, La sound with your voice. Meaning I can’t hear you. In other words, you’re shutting out something you didn’t want to hear. Then when you’d become a teenager, you matured into the tuning out to your parent’s suggestions or instructions. We call what teenagers do selective hearing . And by the way many of us still do that throughout our adult life on a regular basis. However, it is not so much selective hearing as it is selective knowing. Follow me.   I have found majority of American adults in my area, especially women choose the selective knowledge method. They choose it with excuses like:              I don’t watch the news. I don’t read… You can’t always believe… I don’t want to know. I don’t know politics. I didn’t see your text. Email me that. I’m just so busy. But wait there’s more. Yet I’ll pause here.

  This morning I awoke to this story I remembered... I wondered what the significance of this was on my mind. I’ve done a bunch of speeches, a few different types, etcetera. Then I realized that around Thursday night April 16th, 1992, I had made a speech just like this one in September 1993. The ending was similar. With one exception—The end of the speech, was not the end of the speech. It turned into a private speech ten minutes after I was done.   When I'd first started doing this speaking stuff, I’d say many times to the person who'd invited me to speak. “Really? You really think I have something to say or share? Huh?” I’d shake my head in disbelief. And continue, “I mean I’ll do the speech. But uh. I have to walk around, cause if I don’t move I can’t talk. And I hate notes. I don’t do notes. So, I can’t tell you what I’m going to say. It just kind of happens.”   Yes, I fly by the seat of my pants for an hour or two. I go with my audience. I know what they want, but I do

  Big Enough Why—Tribalism in the United States The argument that people are grappling with in the United States currently is—why such divisiveness? [1] In my over forty years of voting—I wondered how many people were truly far-right leaning and how many were far-left leaning. [2] [3] Here’s what I’ve discovered, as I am covering the Far-right/Radical Right, the Far-left/Progressives, and the Moderate political views. On the Far-right/Radical Right: If you are not a Bible-banging, church-going Christian. You’re okay to do business with. But anything that suggests you’re caring about anyone outside of their scope of who they think matters. [4] [5] Then ‘off with your heads’. [6] Guns/Rifles , if you are for banning civilians from owning AR15s, they consider you soft. And immediately you’re not worth anything. They want you dead. [7] Yes. The Bible-banging extreme right Christians want you eliminated. They don’t believe everyone deserves healthcare. They believe they are t