Jan’s Blog Posts

Confucius is attributed with these words: “To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.” Informed critical thinking seems to be in short supply these days. While I am unqualified to interpret constitutionality or precedents in the law, I do tend to think downstream as well as upstream. Supreme Court decisions last week have massive implications. The “majority” seems to cross a line.

Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, is a lawyer. He holds the longest tenure as president in the Ivy League (21 years). Previously, he held the presidency role at University of Michigan. His book, A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action (with co-author Geoffrey Stone), warns of dangers of overturning a 2003 Gruttere v. Bollinger Supreme Court decision (upholding affirmative action in promoting diversity in education and ultimately, the general society). Bollinger labels the current ruling “tragic.”

Racial discrimination in the U.S. is problematic on many fronts. Bollinger’s expertise in running major U.S. universities with an effort to promote fairness in the student selection processes has been overlooked by this latest Supreme Court decision. How many of the justices studied his book?  

In an interview with S. Mitra Kalita (4-11-23), Bollinger was worried about how the current members of the Supreme Court would rule on affirmative action. Here is his thinking: “Is it constitutional and consistent with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for selective universities and colleges to consider race and ethnicity as a factor in accepting students? If the effective answer will be no, if that is the outcome, it will reverse a half-century of efforts by higher education to try to become more diverse, and it will have profound effects on society…

I was a defendant in the Michigan case. That was the first time a majority of the Supreme Court, five to four, ruled in favor of higher education taking race into account as a factor in admissions for educational purposes…the court solidly declared that principle under the 14th Amendment. However, the opponents of affirmative action are dogged…[Professor]Geoff Stone and I wrote this book because we felt that not only is affirmative action constitutional, it has been extremely successful in helping to realize the ideals of Brown v. Board of Education…certainly the greatest decision of the Supreme Court in our entire history. It was a unanimous decision by a court with Republican-and-Democrat-appointed justices.”

In a second Supreme Court decision last week, student loan forgiveness was rebuffed. Notably, the individuals holding the most student loans are Black women. As a point of interest, the 3 justices who believed in affirming “affirmative” education and helping with college debt were all women. Were they better informed on long-term issues?

Former justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said: “The right to swing your arm ends just where the other man’s nose begins.” Happy Independence Day!

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

199. When has a precedent mattered in your life?

200. Does anyone in your family struggle with student loans?      

My community library has a book sale every summer. People donate books that they no longer want. A volunteer army attacks bags and boxes of books piling up in sections of the library; they sort books into categories for ease of purchase. You drive to the library loading dock for a big stash of giveaways. No less than 5 individuals (of every decade past age 10) swarmed my last truckload. The ensuing sale draws a huge crowd. One can enlarge their home library for very little money. 

Meanwhile, individuals transform their former book stacks and bookshelves for a variety of reasons: making space for new books (wink), using cleared-out space for something totally new, or needing to reduce “stuff” from a family’s estate hand-me-down books.

As an author I have mixed feelings about all of this. What if the precious books that I donate to the book sale are not purchased? Where do they go? Several years ago I was told that there are simply too many books left over from the sale; they go to the equivalent of book cemeteries. I was aghast. Knowing how much time, deliberation, and energy it takes to write a book, I could not imagine this fate.

Another part of my mind put a philosophical and transformative spin on the life span of a book. What if each book had served its purpose at a particular time in a culture? With paper coming from trees, and trees rising out of the dusty earth, was the return of paper to a landfill just another example of “dust to dust?” After all, my college paperback copy of War and Peace by Russian Leo Tolstoy was on the tattered (and quite dusty) side already. I confess that I never read every fictional war portion. Today we ponder horrors of a current Russian war.

Tolstoy penned these 1867 lines, as if written today: “He recalled his mother’s last letter. ‘What would she feel,’ he wondered, ‘if she saw me here now, on this field, with cannon aimed at me?’” We can answer this, whether we gave birth or not. Clearly, we are a people in need of transformation.

While War and Peace immigrated to the library book sale, I held back another college-era book, psychiatrist Erich Fromm’s The Sane Society (1955). Fromm is described on the back cover as “…counter[ing] the profound pessimism for our future that Freud expressed in his Civilization and its Discontents” (another donation). I am struck by this Fromm quote: “The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.”

Again, Tolstoy’s deliberations are timeless: “There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth…” and “If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”

Transformation is primarily an inside job.

 Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

197. What books from college resonate with you?

198. How do you decide to let go of a book?               

Juneteenth is a remembrance acknowledging the 1865 emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas — 3 years after slavery was abolished in the U.S. While the intent of Juneteenth was to dismantle systemic racism, it has not received general recognition among white folks. President Biden highlighted a history lesson in pronouncing Juneteenth a federal holiday June 17, 2020. Perhaps George Floyd’s life cut short in Minneapolis a month prior can be accredited with the impetus for Juneteenth’s national recognition, along with the 100^th anniversary of the Tulsa (Oklahoma) Race Massacre (also not covered in many history books).

Unfortunately, many Black and Brown cut-short lives have not merited as much notice as George Floyd’s murder by police. In a stinging report of Minneapolis police injustice this past week, Attorney General Merrick Garland laid bare the disturbing facts about racial profiling and police violence.

Lest one is tempted to berate Texas, Oklahoma, or Minnesota for ultra-racist behavior, the NAACP has issued a travel advisory to Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ individuals regarding Florida where it may be especially dangerous for them. Louisiana is another state where the NAACP is considering similar travel warnings.

Trauma from racial and gender injustice seemingly has no bounds. Complicating holiday festivities this weekend, gunfire took down a peaceful Juneteenth gathering in Willowbrook, Illinois, just as Father’s Day arrived. One person died, two individuals were cast into critical conditions, and 20 others were wounded.

What happened to everyone’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Are we teaching democracy in our public schools? I wonder about the children of those who assaulted democracy on January 6^th. What messages did they take away from a parent’s violent behavior to subvert democracy? Too many innocent lives exist in a near-constant state of peril.

And yet, there are pearls.

Journalist Victor Luckerson’s 2023 publication, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street, chronicles the race massacre in Oklahoma on June 1, 1921, and the community’s rise from literal ashes. Tulsa’s unfortunate legacy includes stories of white rioters burning nearly every Black business to the ground and destroying 1200 homes; most concerning, an estimated 300 individuals lost their lives. This once flourishing Black community struggled to rebuild, but encountered rejected insurance claims, property theft, and a later highway which removed shops and homes without fires. Still, rebuilding took place.

One descendant of a founding family of Black Wall Street, Regina Goodwin, became a state representative. In her State Senate run for office in 2015, Goodwin announced, “Some women get lost in the fire and some…are built from the fire.”

While we mourn the lives lost to injustice everywhere, we also celebrate the resilience that reigns in the form of post-traumatic growth.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

195. How might you advance the cause of inclusive education — recognizing everyone’s history?

196. In what ways do you affirm the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ALL?

“It is the hour of pearl — the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.” This quote from Cannery Row is one of John Steinbeck’s most famous lines. You will make your own interpretation of its meaning, but I find it especially relevant to our world today. We could use a pause, a time-out to examine where we are heading ourselves.

An equally poignant but less-known quote from Cannery Row (published in 1945), delineates dilemmas that remain in American culture almost 80 years later: “The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second.”   

Steinbeck’s Cannery Row did not dwell on the lives of factory workers or managers who narrow their interactions by sheltering-in-place in offices; instead, the novel shed light on people who occupy life’s stage at the end of the workday, often with little shelter in the nighttime. And guess what? Cannery Row, as a film, was banned in New York; it was considered “socialist.”  Eleanor Roosevelt is given credit for intervening and supporting the filmmaker.

We still have individuals existing on the edges of mainstream society. We still ban works of art.   

The good news? There are proactive organizations working on America’s deep-seated inequities. Illinois ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Response Collaborative recently featured IL Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton in a webinar. Stratton spoke on Illinois’ 5^th annual Trauma-informed Awareness Day. She described the impetus to create trauma-informed and healing-centered systems change. As a first step the IL General Assembly passed Senate Bill 646: “Task Force to Create a Healing-Centered Illinois.”

Stratton outlined a healing-centered future. Addressing people’s traumas and meeting basic needs are steppingstones. For example, individuals who have served prison time come out feeling “still imprisoned” because they cannot find employment. Healing-beyond-harm restorative justice needs to be highlighted in our justice system. Food insecurity must be addressed.

Join the ACEs Response Collaborative online audience Q & A (offline):

• What is one word that comes to mind when you think of a healing-centered state? Online: Hope, empathy, compassion, peace, justice, acceptance…
• What would it take? Online: Dropping stigmas, having a family voice, cross-sector communication, education, funding…
• What is happening in your community? Online: Youth harm-reduction, youth prevention education, integration of community efforts, child advocacy for physical and sexual abuse, online restorative justice programs, coaching through a trauma-informed lens, training organizations about trauma…
• If you could make ONE thing happen overnight…Online: Free mental health services for every individual, train parents in universal programming, remove punitive charges for drug-related issues, universal healthcare….

Keep in mind, health has the word “heal” in it.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

193.What composes a healing-centered state in your opinion?

194. What are your personal steppingstones for a healing-centered life?  

Have you ever noticed the intense action on peony buds?  My budding peonies are covered with workaholic ants. To be honest, I don’t know how many hours a single ant puts in – yes, they all look alike – but ants certainly are busy at dawn and keep working until dusk. Do some ants work harder than others? Do ants have work shifts? Yes, dear reader, I ask a lot of questions. It is because I am forever curious.

With the help of Ryan Pankau, University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator, I can share a few answers about this topic:

• Ants have an interdependent relationship with peonies.
• Peonies provide food for the foraging ants – a sweet and sticky coating on their sepals, the greenery covering the flower bud. 
• A scout ant leaves a pheromone map for others in the ant colony to also locate this food source.
• The benefit to peonies is that ants defend their commissary! Ant active duty includes removal of other insects who may damage the flower bud.

We often do not recognize (or misinterpret) interdependence in human culture. This brings to my mind the banning of books in several states. While there are different interpretations of what a comprehensive education for children might look like, removing certain books from school libraries and classrooms certainly does not deliver an interdependent (i.e., survival) education. True learning takes a comprehensive understanding of historical legacies as well as current issues. Book-banishing stems from peoples’ fears.   

According to PEN America, a 2022 poll suggests that over 70% of parents believe that book banning is wrong. The PEN Charter was formed in 1948 and is committed to challenging disinformation because it threatens democracy. One of their recent reports highlights our current mis/disinformation and polarization of issues in our country: Communicating During Contentious Times. This interdependent topic applies to school classrooms as well as school board meetings. However, nonviolent communication skills seem lacking in some settings.

I recently called my only remaining aunt on the phone. She had shared some email details about her parents’ (my maternal grandparents’) interdependent love story on the occasion of the 102^nd anniversary date of their marriage. Grandpa told his beloved that he would choose the month of their marriage – June – and she could choose the day. Grandma, apparently without missing a beat, said June 1st. While a century ago it was an era when men often were the deciders in a marriage, this tidbit of collaboration is fascinating. It does take two to tango (in their own ways) for any relationship.

Peony pearls seem to communicate to their ants, “You have my back! Dance on! Let me feed you.” If peonies and ants have interdependence figured out, what’s the problem with people?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

191. Where do you see interdependence working well in our culture? 192. When are times that you are challenged by interdependence?  

As May’s Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close, can we say that the U.S. is more “aware” of the precious bodymind health of all citizens? It has been another challenging month with an average of about one mass killing weekly and little movement in the halls of government to address meaningful gun control measures.

On this Memorial Day there is plenty of grief welling up in our collective atmosphere. The evening news brings graphic pictures and heartbreaking stories from Ukraine; mass killing is likely a daily occurrence in this unfortunate war. Among surviving soldiers, how many will join the considerable ranks of veterans from other wars in battling dissociation and PTSD? Combat armor may save one’s physical life but it cannot protect one’s mental health.

Some believe that protective armoring is needed after death. Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang was buried in 210 BCE among a massive troop of clay warriors closely lined up to protect him for eternity. The buried clay army of 7000 soldiers with terracotta chariots, horses, and wagons standing “at the ready” is an impressive picture book about the desire for protection.

Initially discovered by farmers who were digging a well in 1974, an additional 200 terracotta figures were unearthed in 2020. These amazingly intact clay soldiers each have unique features; different stances, facial features, helmets or weapons distinguish their warrior personalities. But how did ancient people care for their mental health?

I am a huge fan of petroglyphs, not because I can interpret them, but because I admire these early “writers” who published their “stories” on rocks. My guess for the above Hawaiian petroglyph is that it tells the story of family in some sense. Is it one parent giving birth to several children? Or is it intergenerational? Is this an early version of LinkedIn? You will make your own interpretation, but there is some belonging connection among the figures. Is their purpose to stay close to one another for protection? 

Feeling safe and protected is key for one’s mental health. Too many individuals in the U.S. feel like they have a target on their back.

American Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön writes with wisdom (When Things Fall Apart — Heart Advice for Difficult Times): “When we protect ourselves so we won’t feel pain, that protection becomes like armor…We do everything we can think of not to feel anything threatening…[however] breathe in pain…[to] penetrate that armor…With the in-breath the armor begins to fall apart, and we find that we can breathe deeply and relax. A kindness and a tenderness begin to emerge. We don’t have to tense up as if our whole life were being spent in the dentist’s chair.”

Together, we must find ways to integrate inner peace within day-to-day activities to function as our best selves. Let’s arm ourselves with wisdom.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

189. What words of wisdom speak to you about mental health awareness?

190. How might we learn lessons from the ancient ones?

If you ever doubted the interdependent web of all existence, the orange daylight sun in Chicago — after wildfires went on a rampage in Canada — was an eerie reminder that what affects one part of the planet affects us all. This interdependence is apparent everywhere. In giving garden tours recently in Lurie Garden in Chicago’s Millennium Park, I met people from Peru, Australia, and a botanist from Switzerland. Discussing shared international interests in plants is one step toward a peaceful planet.

Meanwhile in Lurie Garden, a bushy-tailed red fox nurtures 6 kits in the romper rooms of several tree surrounds along a garden sidewalk. With many mouths to feed, the garden is agitated with activity under the foliage past twilight. Bunnies and birds beware! The Fox clan is a relentless and voracious hunting party, yet very affectionate with their cute kits.           

Consider baby fox facts:

• Fox kits have such acute hearing that they can hear mouse squeaks from 100 meters. They detect rodents when they dig underground.
• Scent also is keen. Baby fox odor is comparable to skunk spray! It is fox fragrance for identification, marking territory, and later mating. 
• This acute sense of smell detects threats, communicates within the fox family, as well as finds fox food favorites (mice and birds).

Food-finding is interdependent and a balancing act for all critters, including humankind. One suggestion for families to better feed themselves comes from Cara Rockwell, a professor at Florida International University. After her initial Peace Corps volunteer work in agroforesty in Paraguay, she is dedicated to natural resource management research. She studies “food forests.”

In her own yard in Miami, Rockwell created a “forest” of 10 edible species in a six-square-foot patch. She grows taro in the ground, spinach above ground, and has passion fruit vines climb a trellis: a mulberry tree, a star fruit, and a dwarf mango flutter overhead. She claims that her food forest is more resilient with its tight planting in the high temperatures and long dry spells of Floridian summers.  

Elaine Fiore is another Florida food forest enthusiast. She helped create 24 food forests for schools in Broward County. School children are taught microclimate knowledge. Some kids enhance their “forest” with toy dinosaurs. In one enterprising garden, iguana families devoured a third of the garden, especially the young sweet potato vines. Beware of iguanas! Fiore’s future plans include using any produce in school cafeterias for better nutrition for kids. This has amazing possibilities.

Primatologist Jane Goddall advises, “Only if we understand, will we care.”

In my backyard forest I watched a foraging robin tip-toe closer to me while I was seated in soil, digging up chickweed from overtaking my stepping-stones. When I did not seem threatening, Robin kept hopping a few inches closer until we were 2 feet apart. Interdependently, s/he seemed to ask, “Where’s the worm?”

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

187. What bit of land do you have access to for food-forest produce? 188. How might our planet feed people better with interdependence in mind?        

Every day is Mother’s Day. All of us owe thanks to mothers for bringing us through 9 months of magical transformation, labor and delivery. All of us are children of mothers and fathers, whether we know our biological parents or not. Some give birth while still kids. Some want to give birth and for one reason or another are thwarted. Others decide, for many possible reasons, that they cannot continue a pregnancy.

According to 2022 United Nations Population Fund research, nearly 50% of all pregnancies are unintended; between 2015 and 2019 there were about 121 million unintended pregnancies each year world-wide. Over 60% of unintended pregnancies and nearly 30% of all pregnancies result in abortion. However, 45% of all abortions globally are considered medically unsafe. These staggering findings include references to the war in Ukraine and other sexual violence crisis situations where birth control is not a viable option. For example, the prevalence of refugee women and girls who are victims of sexual violence is estimated to be 20% of them.

Additionally, the unwanted pandemic threw people into confusion about family planning. In 2020-2021 research involving 5000 women, 51% of the women either wanted to delay pregnancy or expressed less interest in having a child. In the first year of the pandemic, it is estimated that a disruption in the contraceptive supply chain resulted in many unintended pregnancies. When motherhood is at-risk, childhood also is at-risk.

I feel enormously grateful that I planned to be a mother. With the exception of an excruciating miscarriage, I experience motherhood as a tremendous honor to have given birth and be Mom to my children. I wonder how other mammal moms feel. Many appear truly dedicated. I watched a pride of female lions interacting with playful cubs in India; the mothers seemed watchful and “contented.” I imagined contentment, as the regal female lions lounged alongside a swimming pool of water. They lived in a game reserve where antelope picnics were plentiful. However, if one lives in poverty and/or war conditions, it is challenging to find food to feed oneself and any kids.

Australian scientists have a plan to grow plants on the Moon by 2025. The goal of Lunaria One is to grow plants for food, medicine and oxygen on the lunar surface to sustain human life on the Moon. Will this be like a lion’s game reserve?  

According to Lunaria One director Linda Fell, “We have to find species that will be able to tolerate a wide range of temperatures that can go from freezing to maybe up to 40 or 50 degrees centigrade…there’s radiation…we still have a lot to learn about how that will affect plants…we will need to grow plants for eating but also for wellbeing.”

This sounds like a grand adventure, but what about unintended pregnancy? Will contraception be readily available on the Moon?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

185. What thoughts entered your mind this Mother’s Day?

186. Do animals make better parents than some humans?              

Recognize Your Own Ageism

Do you want to live in a place of your choosing? Nearly everyone, regardless of their age or disability, has reported in surveys that they prefer living in a community rather than an institution. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) was established to maximize the independence and well-being of people with disabilities across the lifespan as well as older adults. May is named “Older Americans Month” with a theme this year of Aging Unbound. One aspect of this theme addresses ageism in our culture.  

Other organizations also focus on ageism – AARP and American Society on Aging come to mind. According to research, 93.4 % of adults ages 50-80 experience one or more forms of ageism EVERY DAY.

While often negative, sometimes ageism takes a positive twist. I experienced a positive bit of ageism at my public library this week. After parking in the underground garage, I approached the stairwell leading to the first floor. I held the door open for a young woman right behind me, in case she also was stair-climbing. She turned to go to the elevator, gave me a once-over look, and then reconsidered, saying, “Well, if you are going to take the stairs, I can take the stairs too!” I gave her a serene smile.

Yes, all ages, take the stairs if it is possible for you! I am especially grateful for stair-climbing after months of slow healing from a sprained ankle that made stairs challenging. 

• Gerontologists Lakelyn Eichenberger and Molly Carpenter recently presented an excellent webinar on ageism. Here are takeaways:
• Ageism has many flavors — assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination.
• Benevolent ageism may view older adults as warm, friendly, but incompetent.
• Functional age, or what a person can do, is overlooked regularly.
• Even children’s books may depict older adults as “limited” rather than savvy about life.
• Marketing tends to denigrate aging. (Greeting cards are notorious for bad jokes; “over-the-hill” party packs feature words such as “wrinkles” and “sagging.”)
• An AARP study found older adults are under-represented in ads or are pictured in wheelchairs by themselves, not integrated with the world.  

While these takeaways may not surprise you, the most meaningful aspect of this webinar was when the presenters aimed their Powerpoint slides toward participants, asking us to recognize ageism in ourselves:

• Do you equate looking old with looking “bad?” Are you ashamed of the physical signs of aging (wrinkles)?
• Do you ever feel “too old” or “out of place?”
• Do you embrace the aging experiences of older colleagues, neighbors or family members?
• Do you discuss ageism with anyone?

One presenter admitted that she uses make-up to “cover” wrinkles, but she admires those who have given up make-up. It is a stereotype that women are acculturated to believe we need “foundation” facial products. What about concerning ourselves with the foundation of ageism and working on transforming U.S. cultural perceptions of aging?  

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

183. When do you need “cover-up” from your aging? 184. What does ageism mean to you?                                             

What are the parallels of writing and everyday life? Here are a few nuggets.

I was invited to illuminate book publishing and blogging for the Illinois Women’s Press Association this past weekend. Synchronicity smiled upon me as hot-off-the-press copies of my new book, Transforming Retirement: Rewire and Grow Your Legacy, reached my doorstep 24 hours before the talk! I opened my box of books and felt a flurry of emotions.                                          

This may sound overblown but trust me on this – writing a dissertation or a book is filled with synchronicities and is like a mini-birth. It in no way compares with the intensity of real birthing emotions but there is a certain gravitas in cradling a bit of one’s creativity in your arms; both events call for deep breathing.

 I felt the weight of 5 years of work in holding this new book – recalling both moments of joy (writing watersheds) and suffering (publishing perils). I flashed upon the last leg of this writing journey – composing the index. I had indexed two previous books, but I somehow forgot how tedious this process was. (Parts of life are tedious too.) Frequent deep breaths were required to rewire my focus. Now discerning readers can condense the entire book concepts in the 12 pages of index. Aren’t there days when we need an index to navigate everyday life?

How can one condense meaningful ideas into pertinent words? Once Hemingway was asked to write a full story using only 6 words. His mysterious version suggests peril: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I challenge you to write your 6-word life story. Here is mine: “Country gardener, city psychologist, lifelong learner.” Activist Gloria Steinem condensed: “Life is one big editorial meeting.” Author Frank McCourt was tongue-in-cheek: “The miserable childhood leads to royalties.” Thankfully, I did not endure a miserable childhood, but I also have not reaped many royalties in writing non-fiction books.

If your writing does not produce monetary sustenance, why write? There are as many different answers to this question as there are writers. Here is my take: writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, is one attempt to edit your own life story. Writers’ everyday life stories end up in their writing. Writer Natalie Goldberg admits that her only novel is a thinly disguised version of her ex-husband.

Author Joyce Carol Oates realized her basic need for connections: “Writing is like a dream that you are controlling…a wish to communicate your vision to other people…writing is communal…we see that we have some of the same experiences…you are not so isolated.” Yes, people do share many of the same experiences. This is everyday life!

Writing more than 60 works, Madeleine L’Engle offers this gem: “Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” Writing is work. Writing also gathers inspiring pearls. Who does not enjoy a daily dose of inspiration?

  Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

181. What do you write? Emails? Texts? _______? 182. How does your writing relate to your everyday life?