Observations of an Octogenarian Optimist — 1 — Start positive. Finding one hopeful thing to focus on can kick-start anybody’s day, especially when there’s not a lot of hopeful going around. Finders keepers. 2 — Pay attention to Mother Nature. The planet needs help: turn off the water, turn the thermostat down if it’s winter and…

The sky is falling! Breaking news! Our fragile democracy in peril!! Life still feels shaky. Even without those constant, frenetic tweets threatening to alter the course of world events in moments, truth competes with fake news. Long-established rights and laws are questioned — or disappear before our eyes. American democracy…

This essay appears on the blog page of End of Life Choices CA, a nonprofit which I am proud to serve as a volunteer and board member. Perhaps you’ll visit the site, or at least find a little food for thought here. When is being comfortable and pain-free not a…

Nearly 70 years ago I survived an amateur abortion. On a kitchen table in a drab house in a down-at-the-heels neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. On a dreary February morning, the loneliest day of my life. Victim of workplace rape by a prominent man who had enormous power over me, I…

Thankfulness in every known faith tradition, a peculiar blessing — There it was, peace on earth: Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Mormons, Catholics, Buddhists, Brahma Kumaris and assorted others hanging out together around bountiful breakfast tables and offering prayers in every known faith tradition. . . beginning with an Ohlone Prayer in the Four Directions because “we acknowledge that we are on…

A bucolic setting for talks that — hopefully — preserve the planet a little longer — FILOLI — Where Biden met Xi. “FIght for a just cause. LOve your fellow man. LIve a good life” The six letters of those first words of his personal motto became the name of the stately California home William Bowers Bourn II built in 1917. Not a bad motto for…

An old idea meets 21st-century imagination — They were called the “Mighty Five.” A handful of Russian composers wanted to create a national style nearly two centuries ago. This reporter is singularly unqualified to discuss, at length, their movement or its success. But I have forever loved Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Mussorgsky was, despite his alcoholism…

How to go from overwhelmed to understanding, and maybe find a little peace in the bargain — Actually, I complain a LOT. It has to do with being a wimp and a people-pleaser. With an inability to say No. With a firm belief that I can do stuff better than anybody else, so I should do whatever stuff might need doing. This is a recipe for disaster…

When ‘Watch your step’ becomes a cross-country message — I recently published a story about sidewalk messages, because I’m addicted to urban walks and occasionally watch my step in search of wisdom and inspiration. There were mixed messages from around San Francisco — but mostly it was about love. People seem to like sharing the love in concrete, or…