George Santayana was right when he wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 1960, my friend John and I drove to Miami for spring break and came home with a tiny alligator we named Gerard Swope. We wanted to be cool. We thought having a pet alligator would make […]
Ron Kokish
Posted inColumns
Mature Content: A liberal’s hopeful lament
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Posted inColumns
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, […]
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, […]
Posted inLetters
Letters – Oct. 31, 2024
Correction: Last week’s cover suggested the group Protect Our GarCo Libraries organized the gathering at Centennial Park and the march to the county administration building. In fact, it was the Garfield County Public Library District (GCPLD) that spearheaded the entire event. GCPLD organized this event as part of the American’s Library Association’s Unite Against Book […]
Posted inColumns
Mature Content: Dear Mandy,
Mandy and I chatted after a concert last week. She told me that she usually likes this column, but she wasn’t so sure about the last one. Kind of a downer, she thought. The column was about death becoming an ever more present companion when we are old. It was about losing loved ones and […]
Posted inColumns
Mature Content: Living the end stage
A medical team stopped and restarted my heart a few weeks ago, trying to stop its atrium from fibrillating. I considered this a drastic measure, but it didn’t work. It rarely does, with people my age. Consequently, I’ve scheduled even more drastic measures.My cardiac reboot took place two days after a close friend’s memorial service. […]