Today on my lunch break, I was walking to a restaurant in the Inner Sunset when I came upon two older men kind of sprawled on the ground on top of each other. There was grunting and grappling, one with his arm around the neck of the other. A nearby bike was knocked over on…
Category: The Spirit
My 2017 Year in Review: Pies, Dancing, Safaris, Pastries, and More Dancing!
Okay I am WAY late to this, but I felt compelled to throw something together tonight. Here’s my 2017 year in review. Quick 2017 Stats Freestyle Dance Videos Shot: 7 Number of Marches and Protests: 3 Number of Pies Baked: 5 New Hobbies Acquired: 1 (rock climbing) Dance Competitions Entered: 5 Countries Visited: 1 (South…
Why I Need Lindy Hop
Voon and Veronica at Central Park Swings, 2008 Every once in awhile I feel guilty about all the time and energy I spend on dancing, when I could be out fighting injustice, building homes for the poor or lobbying Congress more. And then I finish a kick-ass dance weekend and head off to my job…
How to be Happily Single Forever
Looking back on my life, I would say that most of it has been spent as a single person. Across the span of nearly three decades as an adult, I’ve only had a few instances where I was in a committed relationship. And for the most part, I’m just fine with that. Recently this article…
Anne Lamott on “12 Truths from Life and Writing”
I'm an old fan of Anne Lamott, a writer's writer and a constantly inspiring figure in my life. So I was so pleased to stumble across this TED Talk she did earlier this year on "12 Truths from Life and Writing." I need to watch this every morning of my life.
Dwarf Quaker Slavery-fighting Activist Benjamin Lay is My New Hero
The New York Times has an inspired write up about Quaker activist Benjamin Lay, “You’ll Never Be as Radical as This 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf.” It really speaks to my condition, as Friends say: “Lay, a hunchback as well as a dwarf, was the world’s first revolutionary abolitionist. Against the common sense of the day, when slavery…
Thoughts on Dancing, Getting Older, and Continuing Revelation
I won't always be dancing the way I dance now. I've been thinking about that in mostly a negative ways: My body won't let me b-boy anymore… I'm losing flexibility and power, so I have to make up for it in some other way….I won't be able to do the things I do now in ten…
This is My City, My Museum, My Home
Yesterday, this is what I saw as I biked past the California Academy of Sciences, around 8:30pm. I was in awe of the beauty and grandeur of nature, the magnificence of my city, and the elegance of my museum. I'm such a fortunate human. The blog isn't doing this picture justice. Check out a higher…
What I’m Good At: Listening, Questioning, Focusing…
I've been thinking about the things that I think I excel at. I don't mean specific skills or talents, like dancing or public speaking, although that is certainly important. I am thinking more about broad buckets of strengths that I have. Here's what I've come up with so far. Active Listening I'm a good listener….
Message to President-elect Trump from New York Quakers: Reject Hatred and Bigotry
Here is the message that was communicated from New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to President-elect Donald Trump a few days ago. Although I have not attended Quaker Meeting for a very long time, I am still formally a member of the New York Yearly Meeting and the Brooklyn Monthly…