My parents, my two older sisters and I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, between 1960-1963. I was in third to fifth grades. During our years there, we marched in protest of segregated restaurants, movie theatres, and drugstores, boycotted segregated businesses, did voter registration drives, staged sit-ins, and were threatened by gun-wielding white men. The […]
Keeping Quiet
My father, Don Irish, died one year ago at age 97. He was not one to keep quiet or to stay still. Even so, this Pablo Neruda poem has me thinking about him, and how we might all benefit from not rushing around so much. The next-to-last verse below is especially compelling: It does seem […]
A Tribute to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
My father, Don Irish, died in April of 2017. For the last five years of his life, many of us helped him write his memoirs. We self-published the book in 2015. I share an excerpt here that seems particularly relevant to the harassment of untenured professors (often people of color) that is occurring across the country […]
Don Irish, Rest in Power
Donald Paul Irish, 97, died on April 14, 2017, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Don loved life: a deeply committed, intense, and energetic man, he joined countless causes for human betterment and fought despair in the face of many intractable forces. He put his body where his words were and he put his money where he […]
Gliding into the Unknown
The Swan, by Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Edward Snow This heaviness, toiling on as if in bonds Through a landscape of things still undone, Is like the makeshift walking of the swan. And dying–to feel slowly giving way That ground on which we daily stand, Like his uneasy lowering of himself–: Into the water, […]
Joliet Wedding at the Henry Mansion
In July 2016, Renner Larson and Audrey Schlofner got married at the Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet. I wrote up this long-ish version of the place where the event happened, for those who want more than the short insert in the program! So, who was Jacob Henry? Jacob Apgar Henry (1825-1908) made his substantial wealth […]
Stand. Point.
Poem written in January 2014, but still relevant. I can’t stand it. Standpoint: White woman feminist with Middle-class roots deep in the last century, I stand in silence. A gap Agape (Gr. Αγάπη) Not speaking because If I speak I harm those with whom I want to stand. White supremacy leaks toxins Into conversations, lectures, […]
Job-Less: Changes toward Balance?
A friend recently said something to the effect that “we can slow down when we’re in the ground.” I’d really like to slow down before then, but I know it will be hard for me to do. In the coming months I hope to establish some balance among my research, writing, volunteer work, time with […]
Autobiography through My Hair
An entirely frivolous post: a visual history of my hair. On the left is the reason why I cut my hair in the mid-eighties: it was so appealing for babies to yank […]
“All that We Let In”
Metaphorically speaking, I agree with the lyrics of The Indigo Girls’ song when they sing “we’re better off for all that we let in.” The song reminds me to be open to challenges and growth, but of course sometimes “all” the suffering of the world is too much and needs to be balanced by celebration […]
