Double Vision - by Shana Ogren Lourey

 

2014 Columns

 

December, 2014     What Makes a Good Citizen?

 

It was our official commemorative Veterans Day last month on November 11. On that day, I think of civic duty and wonder if I am doing my job to fulfill it.

 

What does it mean to serve one’s country? Or to serve the world?

 

October, 2014         Got Hope?

 

My two year old son is lately always saying “I put you in a cage!,” and then he eats the invisible key that he locks me in it with. I, of course, highly over-think this fiasco he is running. What does it mean, about his character, or about his desires? Why is he interested in having such power? (This is where you, the reader, tell me - quite simply, Shana, he doesn't have power over his ANYTHING right now, because he is two. That's why he is so interested in power.)

 

September, 2014     Moving Elsewhere

 

What if you have known something bad? Does that mean you are drawn back to other bad things? And hence, what percentage of your final actions should be considered your full responsibility? Are you just a lucky bastard if you have a good life? Or do you deserve any of the credit for getting it?  

 

August, 2014           Hats Off to You Strangers    

 

My parents told me during childhood about a local "boy with no butt." It was their description of a baby boy in the neighborhood who was unfortunately born without an anus. His name was Elvis. I always had a very illustrated image in my head of Elvis, the boy without a butt. I imagined him very tall and very wide, but just lacking any break in his structure. I believe I imagined his legs stuck together also. I have never forgotten his story, yet I have never met him.

 

July, 2014                Unexpected

 

A Jewish realist of an idealist, I hope for the best and expect the worse. So how is it possible that the Mwansambo Village Community Library is still open? The best thing I did during my two year Malawi, Africa Peace Corps service was to help some villages build and open public libraries. It started with my village of Mwansambo in Central Malawi.

 

June, 2014               Under Mystical Pressure

 

My newest fun trick is treating my two-year-old son, Quentin, as if he is the oracle. "What color is today?" I ask. "Who knows everything?" I question him. I hold back from really putting the pressure on, although I long to request the answers to my most philosophical and burning dilemmas. What is the meaning of life? What happens after we die? Am I pretty?

 

May, 2014               Dream a Little Dream of Me

 

Some cultures hold a belief in the dreaming process as a kind of soul travel, where the dream world is a sort of other reality and an important source to be listened to.  Dreams could bring insight to an individual or a people, on the future health of your children or how to plant a crop.

 

 April, 2014               There is a Pattern

 

This year astronomers discovered the existence of 715 more planets.  Wow!  What do you make of that discovery?  Does it make you feel smaller?  Does being small make you feel good?

 

March, 2014             Let’s Trade

 

Oxfam International just issued a new report on inequality, stating “The bottom half of the world’s population owns the same as the richest 85 people in the world” and that “Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.” What world is this that we have created? Shame on us.

    

February, 2014         What Are You Sticking To?  

 

The Threshold Choir is a movement that was started 14 years ago in El Cerrito, California.

 

The Choirs, if asked to come to a bedside, sing to those who are dealing with grief and dying. They travel to homes and hospitals, usually two to four singers at a time, and share the comfort and joy of song to those who are suffering at that threshold between life and death.

 

January, 2014          Legally Addicted

 

Listening to a program on the radio about heroin use, I had the urge to call in and contribute my thoughts and probes. I decided to instead ask the questions to my personal resource – Mom.

 

 

 

                                                                                                Go to Double Vision 2013 and 2012