Loving kindness meditation for a new era
Dear President Biden, I swear I didn’t use the words “surreal” or “unreal,” or anything at all like them before the young woman I was speaking with yesterday said that it’s feeling to her as though we’re living through a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction sort of dystopian time. And then later in the day, Laura said much the …
Continue reading "Please don’t fall on the filibuster sword"
Dear President Biden, The other day I registered my dismay at your American exceptionalism rhetoric and the toxic masculinity that’s laced through such posturing and today I will register my dismay at what’s happening several notches up the toxic masculinity continuum. As you may have guessed, I’ve been reading about the House vote to censure …
Dear President Biden, If you are keeping up with what’s going on in the world, you probably did check out the clip of The Linda Lindas’ performance of Racist, Sexist Boy that I told you about yesterday since it was splashed all over the place, from NPR to the Washington Post. If you did, then …
Dear President Biden, I didn’t think the Chauvin verdict would come so quickly and rather than pivot now, I’m going to go with what I drafted this morning before work. But please know, I am relieved and grateful for Chauvin’s conviction on all three counts. At the same time, please know, I grieve for young …
Continue reading "The brilliance of “Tired” by Langston Hughes"
Dear President Biden, Last night my brother texted and then called to tell me that Wednesday night when he was walking his roommate’s dog a police car rolled up alongside him. He said the officer was friendly but that he conveyed the message that someone had called the police reporting that a Black man was …
Dear President Biden, In my previous life as a daily (as in every single day) letter writer to DLT, I would sometimes take breaks from the mayhem and tell him about the hummingbird I saw or the crocuses that were starting to bloom, but mostly I railed at him. It was cathartic and it gave …
Dear President Biden, A fairly quick perusal of various articles in the WP this morning doesn’t just suggest, it definitively demonstrates that there are vast urgent opportunities to apply the harm reduction lens to our collective and individual choices. These opportunities run the gamut from police outside of Minneapolis having shot and killed 20 year-old …
Dear President Biden, Our pastor, the Dr. Reverend Kelle Brown, gave one of the best sermon’s she’s ever given this morning. If you want to check it out, you can find it on our YouTube channel (go to about minute 49). Her sermon title this morning was Alive! and it inspired the following Easter haiku: …
Dear President Biden, Yesterday I shared my pastor’s statement “safety is a myth” along with her strong urging that those of us who have gotten to walk through life believing this myth or the myth that safety is somehow attainable need to let it go and get on with the work of justice. Today as …
Dear President Biden, Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to you – I know you are super proud of your Irish roots so I hope you enjoyed the holiday yesterday. You probably know this, being both Irish and Catholic, but just in case you don’t, I learned yesterday morning that Patrick was born in Britain to …
The Biden Letters 