Thursday, 2 Jul 2015 - What a month it’s been! In just the past couple of weeks, the Pope made a passionate argument underscoring the need for humans to respect not only other humans, but other species and all life on Earth, while the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of all Americans, no matter their sexual orientation, to civil […]
Thursday, 25 Jun 2015 - Today, I am grieving the beautiful souls gunned down in their place of worship, where they were working together to build a better world.
Thursday, 18 Jun 2015 - The American working world is rarely family-friendly. The Pew study found that “16 percent of working mothers and 15 percent of working fathers say it is very difficult” to balance the responsibilities of work and family life.
Thursday, 11 Jun 2015 - I awoke on the morning of January 1, 2013 — New Year’s Day — with what one might consider an unusual question. “What can I do to terrify myself this year?” Within an hour of posing that question to myself, the phone rang. A friend was inviting me to offer an evening talk on my […]
Thursday, 4 Jun 2015 - The film, ‘The Mask You Live In,’ establishes clear connections between what one expert called “the pandemic of violence in America” and the repressed anger and hurt of boys and young men, as well as a narrow definition of masculinity that equates “being a man” with physical force, sexual conquest, and economic success.
Thursday, 28 May 2015 - College-aged women are four times more likely than any other age group to face sexual assault and in 90 percent of reported cases, the victim is acquainted with his or her attacker.
Thursday, 21 May 2015 - Now, as never before, we have an opportunity to come together as a global society to wage peace in the name of survival…and beyond survival, prosperity. It will take ordinary people like you and me acting each in our own locales.
Thursday, 14 May 2015 - In the 21st century, we have the opportunity to break out of gendered limitations and move on to a better personhood. Women can bring their listening and cooperative values to men, and men can bring their courage and confidence to women.
Thursday, 7 May 2015 - This Mother’s Day, by all means shower your mother with flowers, chocolates, and love. But let’s also think more deeply about the tremendous contribution mothers make every single day, and how we might work together to ease their burdens and give them the recognition and rewards they so heartily deserve.
Thursday, 30 Apr 2015 - Disasters make us wake up and realize all over again how precious life is, and how important health and security are to human happiness. Even here in the placid Berkshires, we need to think about disaster prevention and preparedness. No, we don’t live in an earthquake zone, and no, I don’t see any riots on the horizon in quiet little Great Barrington. But there are some big issues brewing that we do need to be paying attention to now, before they become runaway disasters.
Thursday, 16 Apr 2015 - I can understand that food waste is a problem, and look at a statistic and tell you that it is terrible, but once I am confronted with images of the sheer magnitude of piles of wasted food and the story of people who tried to make a difference, that is when I have to take a look in the mirror and really consider taking action.
Thursday, 9 Apr 2015 - Can anyone doubt that climate change is real and upon us, already melting the glaciers, acidifying the oceans, and setting off droughts, floods and storms of Biblical proportions? The question is, now that we are aware, what are we to do?
Thursday, 1 Jan 2015 - I hope that this holiday season and throughout the year, we remember that giving can begin with how emotionally generous we are to ourselves. If we each take a deep breath and remember this, everyone else in our lives will feel the beautiful effects of that most important generosity.
Thursday, 25 Dec 2014 - Since joining the Generosity Economy, I’ve been spending less money — especially on food and clothing. But I’ve also changed the way I approach purchasing things in general. I think longer before simply buying something new, asking myself, Do I really need this thing? How much is it worth to me? Is this something my community can provide?
Thursday, 18 Dec 2014 - I love to give gifts, especially when they’re handmade by some of my talented women friends. What follows is a decidedly idiosyncratic list of some of the local woman-run craft businesses that are high on my list for holiday gifts.
Thursday, 11 Dec 2014 - You hold an unsullied, childish notion that your soul, once breaking free of mortal restraint, will move on the wings of wind in the company of Dolly and other beloved creatures who have left the Earth.
Thursday, 4 Dec 2014 - The more we gawk at $2,000 handbags, the less mental space we have for thinking about people who don’t have anything to put in a handbag.
Thursday, 27 Nov 2014 - You may have spotted me last week at the grocery store. I was the woman reading the tiny ingredients on the food labels with a magnifying glass.
Thursday, 20 Nov 2014 - I like being called a lesbian. “Lesbian” sounds so cool, so special, and so different that I choose it for myself. Because I am different, and because words matter.
Thursday, 13 Nov 2014 - While community service really does start at home, it just can’t end there. So I’m going to show up for my family as best I can. But I’m also going to drag them to protests.
Thursday, 6 Nov 2014 - Change is accelerating and taking us forward in ways we cannot predict. We are going to need every ounce of community spirit, every fiber of resilience, courage and compassion in the months and years ahead.
Thursday, 30 Oct 2014 - Our local issue over the upgrading of Monument Mountain Regional High School is about the increasing stratification of American society. Public education is the one American social institution that can maintain the social mobility upon which our nation was founded.
Wednesday, 22 Oct 2014 - Kristof’s central message was that if we put our minds to it and work together, we can make a difference.
Thursday, 16 Oct 2014 - EDGE WISE: A new weekly column that moves women’s voices to center stage. Women of the Berkshire region, you are hereby invited to make this space your own! EDGE WISE will appear weekly, and my hope is that you will take full advantage of this opportunity to share your views and visions with readers of The Berkshire Edge.
Thursday, 10 Dec 2015 - We are all connected in this world we share and have a responsibility to take care of each other.
Thursday, 3 Dec 2015 - I want to be able to write a letter to future generations that tells proudly how in my time, we stood up in the face of impending disaster and made the necessary changes in lifestyle, industry and economy.
Thursday, 26 Nov 2015 - Let us remember the real roots of this holiday: The generous spirit of the indigenous ancestors of America, who welcomed the first European refugees.
Thursday, 19 Nov 2015 - If we really want to defang the terrorists, we should stop selling them weapons, for starters.
Thursday, 12 Nov 2015 - Goliath is now us, ordinary citizens linked together through the Internet, working together to make our dreams and visions real.
Thursday, 5 Nov 2015 - It was no accident that the realization of equality for gay Americans was preceded by a good decade of arts activism.
Thursday, 29 Oct 2015 - The silver lining of this autumn of our discontent is that the streets and proverbial water coolers of Great Barrington are suddenly buzzing with neighbors newly engaged with the civic life of our town.
Thursday, 22 Oct 2015 - We are the stewards of our community, and every decision we make matters. Letting our high school slide into disrepair…letting the character of our Main Street be lost.
