KV Goes on Sabbatical

As we move into October the leaves are turning and the 2018 election season is heading into the home stretch. For engaged citizens who are politically active these mid-term elections may feel exciting, even all-consuming. You likely have neighbors whose awareness of the elections and the candidates is limited to seeing yard signs going up… Continue reading Your Dollars Speak as Loudly as Your Vote!

…feelings! gratitude the gift of time love is very present, in the giving and in the receiving honoring this space, fully committed to seeding and growing renewal much can grow in ninety days my comrades, my friends, my family, my bestest comrade/friend/family/love my deepest thanks joy         right now: lovely breeze  blowing,… Continue reading on the last day of my sabbatical…

One goal I identified for these three months was to read a variety of speculative fiction written by women and transgender people as a gateway for stretching my imagination about the future of our work. What might I learn about building a world without sexual and domestic violence? As I have described this sabbatical project… Continue reading “Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. … [Write] knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.” —Edwidge Danticat

I write today to assert that in the debate on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to a position of Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and the recent allegations of sexual assault, you have missed the point. The only wise,  honorable and acceptable response at this moment in history to Dr.… Continue reading Honorable Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,

…was my trip to Herland, a country entirely designed to ensure that every child thrives…to the last child. Our work to create a world where relationships between people are healthy, respectful and safe has evolved and re-shaped with each passing decade. One aspect of the evolution that we are grappling with at present is how… Continue reading One of the best trips of my sabbatical…

The Broken Earth triology, written by N.K. Jemisin, took me to Earth more than 25,000 years in the future for an agonizing, captivating and ultimately inspiring revolution. The last lines of the third and final tale quoted above have a beautiful irony to them as they are spoken by a Stone Eater, a being who… Continue reading “Don’t be patient. Don’t ever be. This is the way a new world is begun.”

Three months.  Two thousand two hundred eight hours.  Enough time to get lost in hours of reading every day and spend a few hours gardening.  Enough time to prepare and enjoy three healthy meals every day and try out a whole bunch of new recipes.  Enough time to visit friends I haven’t visited in years… Continue reading Pondering the gate.

…if girls and women had THE POWER? Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel, The Power, suggests, sadly, pretty much the same. My sabbatical project centers around reading speculative fiction that wrestles a bit with the question of gender and oppression (or the absence of both) in the future to tease out imagery and wisdom that might inspire… Continue reading What might the world look like…

…full of food for the soul. There are not too many things that I love more than taking a road trip with Ruth.  We’ve spent more than a few hours together over the past 29 years. Still, it always feels like such a precious gift when we have an opportunity to spend some time away… Continue reading A nourishing road trip…

…”My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” The premier issue of Ms. magazine included an essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” written by Judy Syfers.  I was introduced to this insightful piece of feminist satire a decade later as a sociology student at Hood College.  I want a wife who will keep my clothes clean,… Continue reading As true today as it was in 1970…