Tag Archives: Homelessness

Jul 11 2021
Posts

Safety/Danger

“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” ― Jane Addams 

Today’s essay takes a look at safety/danger as gun violence, mass shootings, hate crimes, and domestic terrorism are on the rise. Add climate change, infrastructure neglect, ransomware cyber attacks, and the continued spread of new COVID-19 variants and our safety and security are threatened. Safety and security are two of our most basic human needs, part of the foundation of the physiological requirements as described by Herbert Maslow in his paper in 1943, A Theory of Human Motivation and illustrated in his Hierarchy of Needs. Continue reading →

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Apr 25 2021
Posts

Within these Walls: Moving Stories

Stories of Home

For my blog, Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! I’ve written numerous reminiscences and essays — over a dozen — about moving and home, and sadly, homelessness too. I probably have a book, or at least a collection of stories.

This fall during the pandemic, I wrote and submitted two stories in response to the theme, Within these Walls: Stories of Home for Forward Theater Co.’s (FTC) sixth Monologue Festival. I’ve submitted to five of the six monologue festivals, links to the monologues at the end of this story. For one of my submissions, I received my favorite rejection letter as a writer for the Someone’s Gotta Do It! Monologue Festival, for my submission Maria from the Sewing Room (and Gloria from the Lay-Up Department), which wasn’t selected, but made the semifinals out of 300 submissions. Continue reading →

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Nov 04 2016
Posts

Home: Hearth and Heart

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us.” — Arik Berk

The following essay and poem are excerpts by this author from a new anthology published by Nectary Press, Home: Writers Explore Its Meaning. The anthology features “…writers with Madison, Wisconsin-area ties who were asked to personally explore the concept of home. The result is a collection of place, belonging, identity, resilience, and love.” On November 2, 2016 OM Build and OM Village Tiny Houses Occupy Madison, Inc. hosted a fall fundraiser for the organization. Contributors read their work and the evening included the sale of the anthology, a silent auction of handmade items, and a performance by the Raging Grannies. All proceeds benefited, OM Village Tiny Houses. Continue reading →

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Jul 16 2016
Posts

Home/Homelessness

“By adapting and adjusting to randomness, you shape but do not control your endpoint.” ― Bob Deutsch

“Without the sleeping bag I’m just somebody up early in the morning, sitting under a tree. With the sleeping bag I’m nobody up early, sitting under a tree: a slight, but important difference in how I’ll be perceived.” ― Craig Stone

I started writing this essay on July 4th, Independence Day, which began as a quiet morning that ended in fireworks. It wasn’t a random occurrence, but planned. What happened in between was a combination of the two, the interplay of intention and randomness. Lately, with all the random and planned violence, inequality and poverty in the world, it’s an unsettling and dangerous time, difficult to know how to prevent tragedy, how to be safe, and how to engage in the discourse and solutions. Continue reading →

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