Writing Reality

 How I Really Feel... Gossip versus Compassion: In 1977 upon the beginning of my 2nd year of Cross-Country running and 2nd year in high school.  There were about seven of us girls running the Saturday before Labor Day on a training run through the field areas of our high school.  I kept quiet, for the most part, listening to the girls giggle about some odd thing. They were gossipping. Basically,  I despise gossip, always have.  So, when I heard what I felt was tragic news of a former female competitor from another school...that her hopes of going to a high-end university on a scholarship were suddenly dashed, I inquired. I asked,  upon finding out that the former competitor of ours had gotten pregnant over the summer, "How...?" Of course they laughed and made fun of me. Which I handled well externally, tortured internally by their discompassionate response. However, what I thought was...I feared that maybe she was raped... Or somehow fell into a bad place....

  Leaving doors unlocked Where children are secured  Unbrave men armed Not one runs in Firestorm heard Yet no urgency occurs Hours away as parents mourn Money over children It doesn't matter  Deceive the underserved  White men pandered to Mental illness so they claim White men committing the most Having most access to help Denying a problem  Only wanting to keep their ARs Lassoing other young men Helping commit atrocities  The rich white want atrocities To fulfill their falsehoods  To suppress change Oppression from Oligarchs  Skirt tragedies They land at our doorsteps  ---Jody-Lynn Reicher 

Children are brave Where are the men? Those so armed  Waited for carnage  To rush in White men failed To protect once again Loaded to the gills No conscience  It's not kin Failed security  Was the begin They'd heard a call A criminal they saw Assumed he was pinned Men with guns  Didn't stop The death that ensued Trigger finger stuck Evil reigned a win ---Jody-Lynn Reicher 

    “Kids are just not running as fast they used.” I heard a coach say over the past six weeks of recent spring track and field competitions. When I attend my youngest’s track and field meets, I pay attention to just about everything. I talk to parents from other teams, who I’ve never met before. I converse with coaches from other teams or officials, usually standing by awaiting some announcement.   Sometimes kids from other teams will comment about something that seems awry. If I’m in earshot, I will converse with them about whatever it is that was their wonderment on the field or on the track. And in that first line of this piece, that coach is correct. I’m seeing it only from a Bergen County, New Jersey standpoint. We are way down across the county in high school track and field performances, in the past decade or more. Why? I could guess. One is that the competition in academics could interfere in the latter years of high school. Yet, that is a must to survive in th...

Last night I finally received the call I've been waiting... for... not quite a decade... but well... as she put it, "Jody, we can't go a decade again before we call each other." Then we laughed.   I remarked, "For sure. Let me see. You were going on a long mission overseas..." She responded, "That's was 2012.... Jody that's a decade." I replied, "So it is." As the first twenty minutes of catch up passed. I had plenty of fried chicken and vegetables that I'd made the night before for my youngest and I to warm up. I only had to prep and cook the rice for our dinner.  Our youngest was studying. All remained quiet and our three pets which make very little noise, unless they feel threatened. Such as sensing someone or something is awry, or in our backyard. They'll thump... so loudly you'll think a huge object fell inside our home. Rattling you out of bed at 2am. No matter how exhausted you may be. Which then can set off ...

Right now with that title, I've either freaked you out. Gotten you to suddenly hold me accountable. Or perhaps, I've intrigued you. My intention is to intrigue you. Then whatever happens after that is not up to me, but up to your soul. Why... Pray tell would I leave that up to your soul? Free-will. If I were God. I'll explain. According to other people's plans, I was supposed to be a devout Catholic or this Bible-banging Christian. I was to get everyone to repent.  However, what happened at a young age was... I was given a Bible. It had pictures in it. It had only the New Testament in it... Which I read early on... by the way according to the New Testament is blasphemy to not attach the Old Testament. As well, it is blasphemous to disregard the Old Testament. Okay follow me... I'm going somewhere.  So, here I was near age eight. Mom, barely had access to a vehicle with any regularity. The closest Catholic church in my first ten plus years was at least two mile...

Today would have been, Our 38th Wedding anniversary... In the Beginning... We met at about 11:30pm Tuesday August 11th 1981 in the United Parcel Service (UPS) Yard, Saddle Brook, NJ at the unloading docks. I took care of the outside docks on the midnight shift. I made sure the trailers were lifted just enough so the packages to get unloaded.  My husband told me three years later that the trailers weren't the only things that were rising because of me. My response, “Yeah, right.” I had twenty docks to handle on the midnight shift. I worked this job at UPS during my off-duty time. I saw this guy in charge of four of the unloading docks, he was a manager. I really wasn't looking for a guy or any relationship. I already had my mind set what I was to do with my life. Yet, I thought...'He seems handsome. He's clean shaven. He looks intelligent, looks hard-working, and he dresses well for the job. Looks like a guy with a real brain. Yep, that's a turn on. Ahhh. But...