tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156729062008-10-11T18:17:45.064-06:00Sustenance for the socially consciousSustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comBlogger243125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-92145485169731240412008-10-09T08:45:00.017-06:002008-10-09T13:56:37.546-06:00

I’ve been busy. Sherry Seiber of Pearl Street Publishing (home of One Sister’s Song) is developing sites that delve into politics and law, and I’ve been working with her on one that’s near and dear to my heart: ImagineAGreatElection.com. Designed to help voters (like me) who prefer to tune out the media hoopla and read about politicians and their plans in specific terms, Imagine A Great Election

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-77095623476925712302008-09-29T09:29:00.004-06:002008-09-29T09:36:07.311-06:00

American Express is currently running its annual Members Project through which Amex card members can vote for charitable causes in the running for significant funding. Voting for the top 25 projects ends at midnight tonight, when the top five will be announced. Winners are announced in October. Amex will fund projects based on how they place: $1.5 million for first place, $500,000 for second,

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-20739738497157461732008-09-20T08:07:00.005-06:002008-09-20T08:47:43.358-06:00

First thing this morning, I was greeted on-line by an AP article on an August 27-September 5 survey conducted by the Associated Press and Yahoo. The headline, “Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama,” is sobering enough, but the article goes on to document many discouraging—but to some not at all surprising—facts: · 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-11500683674739665422008-09-11T06:32:00.002-06:002008-09-11T06:33:33.597-06:00

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-78753956079249216032008-08-28T22:35:00.002-06:002008-08-28T22:39:33.969-06:00

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-56073165283166707962008-08-15T09:45:00.003-06:002008-08-15T09:51:58.123-06:00

Thanks so much to Tara over at Paris Parfait for posting a link to Blog Action Day 2008. The topic this year is poverty, and I’ve just registered to join more than 900 bloggers from around the world as they explore this critical topic on October 15. Join up at BlogActionDay.org. Photo © Alan Chin/Gamma from GlobalRights.org.

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-60412870641650022492008-08-13T14:22:00.010-06:002008-08-13T14:54:46.778-06:00

Denver novelist Carleen Brice, author of Orange Mint & Honey (and editor of Age Ain’t Nothin’ but a Number), visited with my neighborhood book club last night at a nifty restaurant in the south suburbs. The evening flew by thanks to the terrific company, service, food, and maybe one or two glasses of wine (woohoo!). The event was attended by ten of my book-lovin’ neighbors, two of their moms, my

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-44877678671498728392008-08-07T11:51:00.007-06:002008-08-07T12:04:15.196-06:00

A post about Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), “the only nonprofit organization in the country recording textbooks for students of all ages who are blind, print-impaired, or physically challenged,” is filed in my September 2006 archive. While I’m happy to return as a volunteer in the Rocky Mountain Unit of RFB&D’s fourth annual Colorado Authors’ Day next month, I’m also THRILLED to be

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-54162922015098227232008-07-29T10:48:00.000-06:002008-07-29T10:50:32.656-06:00

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-61969132411885661722008-07-28T21:06:00.005-06:002008-08-08T14:06:26.212-06:00

Thanks to the thoughtful efforts of Jennifer and Shannon, Swingset Flowers for Evan is up and running. Visit this Flickr pool for just a glimpse of how many lives in faraway places Evan has impacted. I love the simplicity and meaning of this tribute and look forward to participating tomorrow, the day of Evan’s morning memorial service in Pasadena. To read more about Evan (and to see a fantastic

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-61554259681959690472008-07-25T20:13:00.002-06:002008-07-25T20:41:03.663-06:00

My heart’s breaking for Vicki Forman, her husband, and their daughter, Josie. Somehow Evan is gone. Sweet Evan, pictured with Vicki in my post from the other day. Sweet Evan, whose love of swinging at the park is captured so eloquently in one of his mom’s earliest Literary Mama columns, “The Mother at the Swings.” I am that mother at the swings. I don’t have a child with special needs but I have

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-50909539159095438452008-07-22T06:58:00.001-06:002008-07-22T08:33:31.794-06:00

Vicki Forman amazes me. She’s a creative writing instructor at the University of Southern California; a Pushcart-nominated contributor to print and on-line publications; an essayist published in anthologies such as Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs; a mom of two kiddos, one of which (sweet Evan pictured above with his mom) has multiple special needs; and a

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-33322467472271334212008-07-12T19:15:00.004-06:002008-07-12T19:26:40.428-06:00

Just a note to say summer has worked its magic on yet another blogger... after six weeks of steady kid craziness; heavy-duty gardening; an unexplainable urge to organize closets, e-mails, and recipes; and an annual trip home to see lots of family (including our ever-photogenic nephew, Evan, and new beloved niece, Rachael) I am officially throwing in the towel. Be back in August! K.

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-54250090280166355362008-06-28T07:53:00.009-06:002008-06-28T08:25:54.063-06:00

Talk about timing. My previous post led me to later mention in my comments the trouble “color-blindness” regarding race can have on support for Affirmative Action. Today, the AP is running the article “Obama’s Success Fuels Affirmative Action’s Foes” by AP reporter Charles Babington. I continue to disagree with the argument that widespread support for a person of color for president proves

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-1362240344900457742008-06-25T16:10:00.005-06:002008-06-25T16:28:02.280-06:00

The Anderson Cooper 360˚ blog ran this post, “The Fallacy of Colorblind Post-Raciality” by Carmen Van Kerkhove yesterday. I’ve read Carmen’s writings since she co-founded New Demographic, a consulting firm that addresses race and racism in the workplace in unique ways. Also known nationally as a speaker and commentator on the complex issues behind race and racism, Carmen regularly offers

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-84482106875619247712008-06-23T13:46:00.006-06:002008-06-23T14:01:03.720-06:00

While George Carlin’s colorful history is well-documented, I remain most impressed by his colorful language. Yes, his seven-dirty-words stint always cracked me up (my favorites, though, were his bits about driving, the one when he had no idea—until he stopped, got out for whatever reason, then got back in the car and turned on the ignition—how much STUFF he’d had cranked on; and the one about

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-71711340449368107132008-06-17T14:56:00.012-06:002008-06-18T07:19:09.645-06:00

Doreen Orion, M.D., that is. A psychiatrist who finds herself bamboozled into spending a year on a customized bus with her beloved fellow-psychiatrist husband, two cats, and a standard (read: BIG) poodle, Doreen Orion delivers a bus-load of fun and introspection in her second book of non-fiction, the very aptly titled Queen of the Road. A resident of Boulder, Doreen copes with multiple anxieties

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-16921185434747273272008-06-12T21:08:00.009-06:002008-06-12T21:20:37.274-06:00

Thank goodness for RSS feeds because Kristina Chew at Autism Vox is one prolific blogger. Also a college professor and mom to 11-year-old Charlie—a charming, sushi-loving boy I enjoy cheering on every time I read about his many triumphs—Kristina provides ongoing, fascinating insights into her life with a dynamic child with severe autism. In a Good Morning America feature that ran earlier this

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-74728182073923745862008-06-01T21:13:00.007-06:002008-06-02T06:25:53.610-06:00

The month of May zipped by for me not only because it was crazy busy but because it was FULL; full of spring weeding, spring cleaning, spring kid stuff as yet another school year wrapped up (yippee!), spring celebrations, spring rejuvenations. Not the spa-type of rejuvenations (though I’m way overdue), but the thinking type. Reading Road Map to Holland by fellow mom/writer/blogger Jennifer Graf

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-55748308655317987152008-05-14T09:24:00.006-06:002008-05-14T09:50:41.663-06:00

I spent half an hour earlier this morning surfing favorite blogs despite the little voice that kept telling me to clean the kitchen, start the laundry, figure out what I’m going to do with my (very long straight) hair when I finally get it cut later today, finish the vacuuming I started yesterday, pull some more weeds before it pours again this afternoon, etc. etc. Oh yes, and get back to the

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-29861714205616314952008-05-11T10:13:00.006-06:002008-05-11T10:28:26.954-06:00

I’m tempted to apologize for a dire call for donations on Mother’s Day, but as we move on to other pressing issues I’m afraid the people suffering untold miseries in central Myanmar will be quickly forgotten. Since the onslaught of Cyclone Nargis on May 3, aid has been notoriously slow in arriving to those in need thanks to the idiocy of the military government in this country formerly known as

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-16330428045640172782008-05-07T21:33:00.009-06:002008-05-07T22:31:30.420-06:00

Madame Carleen over at Pajama Gardener served up a sweet tribute on May 7 to Mildred Loving (pictured above with her husband, Richard), who died earlier this month. Mildred Loving was a lady whose determination to do what was right for herself and her husband and family resulted in the monumental Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia that ultimately impacted her entire country. Carleen’s

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-77680273975955791792008-05-06T05:52:00.006-06:002008-05-06T06:11:03.959-06:00

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand visited Lighthouse Writers in Denver this past weekend for a reading and Q&A session on Saturday followed by a discussion of craft (and poets, cooking, art, translation, travel, etc.!) Sunday morning. When novelist Eli Gottlieb introduced Strand on Saturday he referred to the poet’s “ongoing creative growth through a life of

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-39431882023591615872008-05-03T07:34:00.010-06:002008-05-03T08:00:34.179-06:00

Poet and author Lisa Alvarado writes often for La Bloga. I’m so pleased to have stumbled across her amazing May 1 essay, “From the Tips of My Fingers to the Tips of My Toes.” Consider her opening: “This is about my hands and feet. Actually it’s about work and its remnants, about being working-class, Chicana, about going where you don’t belong, or where you think you don’t belong, or no matter

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-20962947259546421682008-05-02T13:24:00.003-06:002008-05-02T13:38:59.343-06:00

Jodie over at Jodie’s Random Thoughts knows a thing or two about love. A mom of four kids—teenager Colin, almost-four-year-old Tyler, three-year-old Emmalee, and eight-month-old Nathaniel—Jodie has been spending a lot of time at the hospital lately with Tyler, who has Down Syndrome and earlier this year was diagnosed with leukemia. While her love for her family has always been evident in her blog

Sustenance Scouthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12980573661955592633noreply@blogger.com