Random Thoughts

I have a foggy memory about a lot of things, but one incident I remember clearly: I was in high school.   A friend and I had been talking to an adult, then it was just the two of us chatting.   And my friend said something like, “You TALK differently when you are around adults, it is like you are a different person around different people,” and the tone of her voice made it clear that she meant it as an insult. I thought about it then (after feeling hurt), and I have pondered it since.   Am I a “different person” around different people??   Am I one Susan to some, and a different Susan to others? I have grown a lot since my high school days.   I like to think that over the last decade I have grown tremendously in my self-confidence and desire/ability to live an authentic, THIS IS ME , “open book” life. And yet… Incidents pop up every once in awhile that drive home the point that I do act differently around different people.   And when I notice...

I am privileged. Oh man, am I privileged. Not only do I have healthy food to eat, I have a grocery store I can walk to to buy it. I have a car and gas in the tank. I have a roof over my head.   A cozy bed (with a warm electric blanket!).   I have shoes (many pairs to choose from) and clothes to wear. I GET that I am privileged.   But days like today, oh man.   I am reminded how truly sheltered and naïve I am. I am an “armchair warrior”.   I talk the talk.   I hang the signs on my front gate.   But when push comes to shove… My sister Sherry and I joined an event called “Swarm the Senate” today.   It is a group of people (it seems mostly women) who have been showing up at the Hart Senate Office building in Washington DC at noon for the last 12 days.   They are peacefully demonstrating, demanding that trump be removed from office.   I had been wanting to go but hadn’t made time to do it.   Wit...

I like that I live “one stoplight away” from our country’s capital (that is the phrase every realtor who lists a house in our neighborhood uses, causing us to wonder, “What route do they drive into the district?” and also “One stoplight , perhaps, but four traffic jams…”).   Close proximity to DC means we can easily join protests, marches, and celebrations.   I love that.   And, let’s be honest, since November 8, 2016, there have been lots of protests and marches to join in on, but we’ve been light in what I could consider reasons to celebrate… Little boy with his sign at a protest against the Muslim Ban at Dulles Airport I have made more protest signs and spent more arm-aching hours holding them in the air the last 19 months than I have the other 52 years of my life combined.     I like protests and rallies .   Especially in this day and age, I find them to be a space filled with INSPIRATION, with HOPE, and with the BELIEF that things can and ...