Just a thought by Judith Martin-Straw
Just A Thought – Earth Day
It’s always seemed like a great idea, but to me it has that holiday echo, like being nice to everyone because it’s Christmas. Why not just be nice all the time? If it’s a good idea to take care of the planet today, isn’t it a good idea to take care of it every day? As someone who strongly identifies as an environmentalist, I still do all kinds of things I know I shouldn’t. I drive a [...]
Just A Thought – Election Reflection
If it feels like afterglow or hangover, there's always one person responsible for how you feel when you wake up in the morning, and that's you. While the election process in Culver City was a two hour nail-biter for the Cooper and Sahli-Wells camps, an easy skate for Malsin and a sinking feeling for Zirgulis, the contest is over. It's the commentary afterwords that shows who we really, just as [...]
Just a Thought- Casting a Ballot
So, you know me well enough to know that wild horses wouldn’t keep me from the polls tomorrow. But do you know me well enough to know whom I’m voting for? While I do admire the folks who mail in their ballots, to me, it’s like kissing over the phone. Good to make your feelings known, but just not nearly as satisfying as the real deal. I want to see who is running the polling station. I [...]
Just A Thought- Up the Spiral
Public speaking is known to be one of the things we fear instinctively, like loud noises. While I have the curious habit of reaching for the things I fear most, I feel that it's only by testing the waters that I ever learn to swim. I don't attempt to do things I know take real training and experience; say, flying a plane or conducting an orchestra. But if what is needed is just courage and will, [...]
Just A Thought- Parents Don’t Vote
Parents Don’t Vote I was at a party recently when my friend Madeline set me on fire with one casual comment; “Parents don’t vote.” I said, “That’s not true. I’m a parent and I vote.” I named several other politically involved parents that I know to refute her argument. But further research proved that she was right. Looking at the database of voters who participated in the [...]
Another Torch Song –
I’m not a sports fan. I will watch the occasional game for fun, if it’s a social event, but I just never sit and watch sports by myself. I’m not anti-sport. I played AYSO soccer, and I swam in high school. I love to play, but just watching doesn’t do it for me- until they light that torch, and then I’m hypnotized. I love the Olympics. I love them unquestioningly and slavishly. After [...]
Just a Thought- Sustaining the Moment
In the moment I stop to consider it, the moment is already gone, and I have to laugh. George Carlin once noted “There is no present; there is only the immediate future and the recent past.” Trying to define any recent moment has been like trying to hold a handful of rain. I love the rain, but the flash photography of the lightning has only shown that everything is in flux, and the thunder and [...]
Just A Thought- It’s not team sports
While the national news is still filled with the repercussions of a blue state electing a red senator, I’m completely irritated with the color-coding system. It is certainly easier than thinking, but I’m just fed up with the idea that politics fit into such neat little categories. Whoever we are, we are more than blue and red. It’s not team sports. It has just been sold to us as such [...]
Just a Thought- Dr. King, Of Course by Judith Martin-Straw
The danger if having a national holiday in one’s honor is that there is the risk of being turned into a greeting card, simple, palatable and undemanding. Of all the radical philosophies to come out of the sixties, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s embrace of non-violence is one that continues to offer political inspiration in an age of suicide bombers and extremist philosophies. While most of [...]
Just a Thought- Philosophy Refresher by Judith Martin-Straw
Mary Daly died at just the right time on January 3 last week. I have been heartbroken and weary with all the funerals I have attended lately, but when I heard that one of my favorite philosophers had left the planet, it was the cue that I needed to pick up her books again and remind myself why she was so inspiring. I first discovered Mary Daly on the shelves of a used bookstore in Long Beach. [...]
