Lately I’ve been reading about the collapse of the Roman republic in the last century BCE. Some historic documents (Cicero’s Letters to Atticus) and some thoroughly-researched historical novels (Colleen McCullough’s ‘Masters of Rome’ series). The parallels with today’s situation in the US are compelling. Politics then as now was rife with corruption, mangled by the …
Category Archives: Loosely Speaking
Life In Chaos
There are so many absolutely appalling human-generated crises going on in the world. People of normal conscience and intelligence, basic humanity and awareness are in fact appalled, are outraged; some are speaking out, protesting and resisting… Some are feeling simply powerless, wondering how these terrible things are being permitted to go on happening. Wondering who …
After the Storm
After all the chaos subsides, after some court cases and sentences, possibly after some funerals and other relocations, life in these United States will not go back to ‘normal.’ Nor should it: “Normal” was so dysfunctional on so many levels, largely before this country refused to learn from the past or even remember its own …
The Joy of Reading
I’ve always been a reader from around 6 years old, finding immersion in other times and lives and worlds such wonderful adventures out of my own reality and whatever its limitations and frustrations. I devoured Laura Ingalls Wilder’s ‘Little House books,’ and read ‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND’ and ‘…THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS’ and all the Pooh …
Voting for or voting against…?
It’s never actually ‘either/or.’ When we vote against what we don’t like, we are voting for the other candidate whether we like them or not. Those who voted against Harris because she was Biden’s VP, against the woman, against the not-white candidate, voted for Trump. Those who took it all for a lark or a …
FIRE!
I watched a documentary series about The Great London Fire of 1666. I can’t recommend it for the writing, so cliche-ridden, so larded with tabloidesque expositions, delivered with such earnestness by a team of narrators who can’t be blamed for the material they’re given. Despite that, the information about the Great Fire itself is worth …
Juneteenth: An American Celebration
I hear the outward celebrations of Juneteenth are being scaled down due to expectations of backlash from bigots, basically. In the current national atmosphere, it’s understandable, and in some degree wise. Like not setting off fireworks in a dry meadow. But the historic moment is most certainly not canceled, it is not going away: Those …
Involuntary Celibates… thinking about where it goes wrong.
It’s in the idea that sex is a male’s biological and social right. It’s in the idea you know what is right for females, what women want, what will get them to want get together with you. So you try to dress up in that garb: the Nice Guy. And women seem to disdain that, …
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For Better Or For Worse
I was reading some news from the UK today and it struck me how lucky that nation is to be so enriched with citizens bringing ideas and culture from so many parts of the world. It’s how the world grows, how it’s supposed to grow. I know there are many who deplore the changes to …
More On Being An American
It’s one of the things that Americans abroad are most recognized by and very often criticized for: striking up conversation with total strangers! Yes, we do that. We do it abroad not realizing that what we do at home is, in fact, not done in many other societies in the world. Americans consider it a …
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 