Columns

We’ve all been in a situation where someone made a racist joke or comment.  Remember how some people cheered on the joker by laughing? While others stood there awkwardly staring at their drink, and when someone did speak up they got told, “Oh, you have no sense of humor. It’s just a joke.”  Let’s face […]

Last month, for my 50th birthday, I got some great gifts, including an epiphany.  It happened in Aspen, where even the poodles forget their masks and have to run back before they can go into Starbucks. My epiphany had to do with historic milestones and significant life lessons, and goddess knows there are plenty of […]

White/Caucasian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, African-American or Decline to State? At first, I responded to my new optometrist’s medical history form by checking that familiar first box: White/Caucasian. Moments later, that choice began to rankle. What relevance could one’s race have to double vision?  The issue wasn’t personal relevance. I suddenly wondered whether the checklist might […]

This summer it seems everyone packed up the family truckster and headed for Colorful Colorado… While I can’t blame them, it has caused me to experience some road rage.  Whether running errands around town or getting out into the wild, everywhere I go, there are humans in my way. On more than one occasion I […]

The cover of the issue of The Sun that appeared June 18, 2020 (Volume 12, Number 19), in solidarity with marginalized people of color across this nation boldly read “I Can’t Breathe”.  It was adorned with photos of Black Lives Matter protests that took place in town in support of communities of color across the […]

Every Roaring Fork Valley town (except Carbondale) has at some point changed its name: Glenwood Springs was once Defiance. Basalt was Aspen Junction. Aspen was Ute City.  What’s in a name, usually, is history. Which is usually written by the victors, then revisited as times change. As they are now.  Across the nation and here […]

Stumbling through riverbed boulders and log jams, the beams of our headlamps were lightsabers, slicing erratically through black night. Snowmelt sloshed in my 20-year old waders. My friend George shivered, soaked up to shrinkage. Neither state though, dampened our mirth. Out after dark, we felt like kids at play. Crossing a marsh, odd pinpoints of […]

“I’ve never felt safer.” I pulled my mask down and leaned over to yell in my friend’s ear during the #BLM march in Rifle last month.  As I said it, there were half a dozen Harleys revving past us as we marched along the sidewalk and police from several municipalities stationed at each intersection. Rifle […]

Whatever the creepy recorded voices at City Market say, it doesn’t feel like we’re all in this together anymore. That’s not necessarily a criticism, just the impression that comes with seeing some people out in large groups and others still cooped up at home. And while I don’t know what precautions might be under the […]

“How are you guys holding up?” I asked a friend.  She groaned and told me how her marriage was strained after months of unemployment, not to mention the stress of having her older children suddenly thrust back into the nest. I sensed she wanted to go keep venting, but she quickly switched gears, as if […]