“It’s the Old Thoreau Tradition”
This morning I was reading a 1972 interview with poet Allen Ginsberg and came across the following exchange… YLP: I was surprised to see the importance young Americans grant now to the Do It Yourself…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Share the Wealth with Natalie Long… Agrarianism, the Divine, and the Presence of Absence: Reflections on a Trip to Poland
We are living in historic times. The pandemic afflicting the human species is not only a test of the resiliency of people around the world, but also an invitation to examine the insufficiency of existing…
After Sanders Makes His Endorsement, I Turn to Some Great Reminderers
Those who live by compassion are often canonized. Those who live by justice are often crucified. –John Dominic Crossan, Scripture Scholar, USA Don’t mourn. Organize. –Mother Jones, labor activist, USA The madness of violence must…
Conscience Thunders
for Matt Miller Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 Simon and Schuster, 2006 The following are passages from this third volume of a gripping, recent history of the US….
This Is What She Said So Often
“Marko, I just want to be a good person.” Mev Puleo
Share the Wealth with Cami Kasmerchak–Year of the Photograph: A Project to Give Myself Permission to Be Me
At the beginning of 2019 I decided to take the year to explore my passion of photography more deeply through the self-proclaimed “Year of the Photograph.” At the time, I was living in Seattle, WA…
Two Ways of Looking at a Plague…
Ernesto Cardenal, Zero Hour And Other Documentary Poems New Directions, 1980 Dear Chase & Liz, The Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal died on March 1. I’m going back over his works this spring under quarantine. I…
The Urgent Necessities When You’re Stuck in One Place
I understand that I can have visitors twice a month—the second and fourth Sunday. However, I understand that everybody—white and colored—can have visitors this coming Sunday. I hope you can find some way to come…
Facing The Facts/4
Reminiscence from Sister Marian Cowan, Mev’s spiritual director It was with deep pain that I recall the two calls in which Mev informed me of her brain tumor and subsequently asked me to be present…
I See You by Rachel Dratnol
To my fellow OTs, the PTs and SLPs, the nurses and NPs, the PCTs and unit clerks, the case managers and social workers, the MDs and PAs, the respiratory therapists and patient transporters, the environmental…