In the mid-1970s I worked for a welfare director named Dave Kelly. Lumber was the regional economic driver and our county’s biggest employer. With mill workers on a prolonged strike, many families applied for food stamps. Dave told his staff that income was the only eligibility criterion and instructed them to grant all income-eligible families. […]
Ron Kokish
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: Turning 85
This month’s Mature Content, a column about aging and life from the perspectives of older people, has been hard to write. Though I dislike admitting it, it’s because I’d rather not face what I’ve been dreaming about most nights and thinking every morning, in that middle space between being asleep and being awake: the number […]
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Mature Content: Another last chance
You’ll be reading this towards the end of the Jewish month of Elul, a few days before Rosh Hashonah (the universe’s birthday) and maybe two weeks before Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). The 10 days between are called “The Ten Days of Awe.” Here’s how these 39-days work. Yom Kippur, a day of fasting […]
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Mature Content: Extractions of the heart
I awoke feeling sad about my appointment to explore having some teeth pulled. I love my teeth and don’t want to separate from them, but these thoughts were soon pushed aside by thoughts about another loss I’m even less ready for. My youngest granddaughter decided to complete her senior year of high school in Salt […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: My billionaire chatbot
Cynics say that Donald Trump gets financial support from billionaires because they think a Trump presidency will make them even richer. But I’m pretty sure that Republican billionaires, like most of us, believe their actions help society. I’d love to interview some of them but what are my chances? So, I had ChatGPT create John […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: Motherhood
Mother’s Day just passed, and I’m thinking about the mothers I met during my 35 years of work on behalf of neglected and abused children. Patricia’s was the first case I assigned to myself after Humboldt County, California, hired me to develop its new Child Protective Services program. Her little girl was in foster care […]
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Mature Content: Sleepless in Carbondale
My friend Lee died suddenly six days ago of a condition she didn’t know she had. I haven’t slept well since, and I’m surprised to be so affected by it. I should probably be calling Lee an acquaintance rather than a friend. I’d only known her a few years and we never had the opportunity […]
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Mature Content: Vision 2050
In the 1990s, I wanted my business to contribute more effectively to my community, so I invested a year in the Teams, Management and Leadership Program (TMLP). There, I learned that to succeed I needed clear goals, a plan to reach them and a “next step.” Although plans rarely go as planned, they provide focus, […]
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Mature Content: Storied lives
When my congregation talked about the power of stories last Sunday, I remembered this one. By the time I was 3, it was difficult for my mother to make me behave, so she used drastic measures. She told me she would have to send me to Reform School if I misbehaved.Confronted by my willfulness, she […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: Bustered
Not yet knowing how the 2024 election would unfold, I ended last month’s column by recommending kindness, humor, and dogs. Still good, I think, now that we know the results. Many of my friends were shocked by those results but having been Bustered, I wasn’t. I was six when I got Buster, a smallish, stout, […]