ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life
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Summary for June 24, 2018
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Dear Folks -
If you were present this past Sunday, you are aware that many Ordinary Life attendees wanted to provide avenues for those who so desire to express their concern about the immigration crisis currently confronting our country - particularly the separation of children from their parents at the Southern Border. There is no mental health professional who will not state that the separation of a child from her or his parent, no matter what the circumstance, does not cause trauma to the child. If you want to make your voice known on this, there are two documents you can use. One is a letter to be sent to political representatives. (To access that, click here.) The other is a listing of congressional contacts. (To access that, click here.)
On Sunday it was also mentioned that we would be designing and taking orders for a t-shirt that reads, “I really do care. Do U?” We found a few enterprising folks who are already printing the shirts, so instead of collecting money and sizes, we are linking directly to two Etsy Sellers you can order from and specify your size and color. If you are interested in this, you can click here or here for more information.
I mentioned Sunday that I have put a piece on the Ordinary Life website under the “resources menu" that I encourage you to read. It is a copy of a review of a new National Memorial for Peace and Justice that commemorates African American victims of lynching from 1877 to 1950. At least two of the people who attend Ordinary Life in person have visited this memorial. I first learned of it because a few weeks back Richard Rohr’s daily meditations carried a photo of it on the masthead of his daily e-mails.
As I say in my brief commentary, we live in prickly times. Intense emotions can cause us not to see what is taking place right under our noses. Perhaps reading about and/or visiting this particular memorial might awaken us to issues nearer in time and place to where we are now.
I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation of Dr. W. F. Strong’s “Stories From Texas.” Many others have said so as well. We have no text of his talk. We do have his presentation slides and there is the audio version which you can listen to using the link below. A video will soon follow. He made copies of his book available. If you were not present to purchase one, you can get one from Amazon either in paper format or for your Kindle device/app. Very entertaining and enlightening.
Also, the Michael Dowd event is now open for registration. I know November seems like a long way off but I expect this event to “sell out.” The registration fee includes lunch. Child care is available at no cost. To register, click here.
For those of you who are not aware of it, Ordinary Life is now live-streamed over FaceBook and there is a You Tube channel where you can view past Ordinary Life presentations. Enjoy.
If you are reading this, I want you to know how grateful I am for and to you.
Be well and much love,
Bill Kerley
To view Dr. Strong's presentation slides, click here.
To listen to or download the audio of Sunday's talk, click on the player below.
About the presenter:
W. F. Strong is a Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Communication at the University of Texas-Brownsville. He was raised in Texas and holds degrees in Communication and Literature from Abilene Christian University and The University of North Texas. His doctorate in Communication and Rhetoric is from The University of Arizona. He wrote his dissertation on Mark Twain’s Speaking, where he developed his intense interest in storytelling as an art form.
