15-Nov-2020 – (Post-Election) Conversation with Jen Peeples and Phil Session (Part 2 of 2)

We now have a global community that calculates how to maximize the benefits for a few at the expense of the majority.

Irene Fernandez

Visit Anchor or other platforms to hear this episode.

My friends Jen Peeples and Phil Session agreed to join me for a recorded Post-Election session. This week, in Part 2, we discuss

• The senate majority
• HUD and homelessness
• The judiciary
• And more!

Click here to donate to help the homeless community in Austin.

See podcast description for remaining links.

Hope you enjoy it!

15-Nov-2020 – (Post-Election) Conversation with Jen Peeples and Phil Session (Part 1 of 2)

Every election is determined by the people who show up.

Larry J Sabato, Pendulum Swing

Visit Anchor or other platforms to hear this episode.

My friends Jen Peeples and Phil Session agreed to join me for a recorded Post-Election session. This week, in Part 1, we discuss

• Our impressions of the results
• The Electoral College
• Our first woman of color VP
• Lawsuits around the results
• And much more!

See podcast description for links.

Part 2 will follow.

Hope you enjoy it!

Fosterage as a Form of Parenting

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.

–Richard Back

Today we’ll be having a brief discussion about something called “Fosterage.”

In the West, when we think about fostering a child, we think about a child that has been orphaned or somehow abandoned by a parent who is not available to care for the child and meet the child’s needs.

Halloween at the Cottage at Woodland Corners

Happy Halloween and Happy Harvest Fest to everyone! I decorated the cottage and feral kitty, Brie, came around to pose for me for these seasonal shots. The twig arbor is awesome. The neighbors love it (or at least that’s what they tell me to my face).

Enjoy!

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Spouse Exchange Traditions

Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy ― in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.

― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

From my college days, I recalled Inuit “wife sharing” as one area we studied in cultural anthropology courses. From my studies, I recalled a few things.

First borrowing and lending in Inuit culture, I was taught, was based on necessity. The climate was harsh, and if someone was in need, it was not acceptable to turn down a request for aid without compelling justification. If I have two pairs of boots, and you are in need of boots, I must lend you a pair of boots. However, if they are my only pair, I may decline the request. In an environment where someone could die for want of a pair of boots, this was part of social protocol.

24-Sept-2020 – (Pre-Election) Conversation with Jen Peeples and Phil Session (Part 2 of 2)

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

Desmond Tutu

My friends Jen Peeples and Phil Session agreed to join me for a recorded Pre-Election session. This week, in Part 2 of 2, we discuss recent developments in the Breonna Taylor case, and more about BLM.

See podcast description for links.

See Part 1, posted last week. And watch for a post-election discussion to come. More info as it unfolds.

Hope you enjoy it!

24-Sept-2020 – (Pre-Election) Conversation with Jen Peeples and Phil Session (Part 1 of 2)

Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.

–Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-020)

Visit Anchor or other platforms to hear this episode.

My friends Jen Peeples and Phil Session agreed to join me for a recorded Pre-Election session. This week, in Part 1, we discuss:

• The importance of voting
• The death of RBG
• Installing a new SCOTUS justice – The new nominee had not been selected when we had this conversation
• The 1619 Project
• Systemic Racism

See podcast description for links.

Part 2 will post next week. And we are currently planning a post-election discussion as well. More info as it unfolds.

Hope you enjoy it!

2020 Voting Resources

Voting in 2020 is more important than ever before. Here are some bipartisan resources. Make sure you’re registered and have a plan to vote!

• Google’s “How to Register to Vote” tool, that provide information by state.
• BallotReady provides information on candidates and ballots – providing you with research to help you inform your vote.
• Democracy Works helps people vote “no matter what”. Cut through the misinformation and confusion!
• Headcount, where you can check your voting status, and get registered!

This year, vote by mail, vote in person, but vote no matter what!

Embrace Race: Same Family, Different Colors – Talking About Colorism and Skin Color Politics in the Family

Anti-Racism Resource – Free Webinar

Time: Sep 24, 2020 08:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Description: Colorism—the preference for or presumed superiority of people based on the color of their skin—is related to racism but can be more subtle and, for many of us, feels less familiar. Colorism, at once an interracial and intra-racial phenomenon, can be particularly devastating when perpetrated within racial groups, often within families.

Join us for a deep-dive into the origins of colorism in different racial and ethnic communities and how this pernicious form of discrimination affects our parenting and family dynamics. Journalist and author Lori Tharps joins us for a discussion about what colorism looks like – at home and in our communities – and how to raise our children to love the skin they are in.

Additional anti-racism resources are also available at this site.

Polyandry

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.

William Sloane Coffin

I remember once seeing someone post a question, “How come whenever there are multiple spouses in a marriage, it’s always one man with multiple wives?”

I am going to sound like a broken record before these marriage and family episodes are through, but anyone who has taken more than a handful of cultural anthropology courses will understand that question comes from an erroneous assumption. In fact, there are cultures where a family structure consists of one wife and multiple husbands. It’s a marriage system known as polyandry.