The Glass is Half-Full

this is a blog post I wrote in March 2017, but didn't publish. I read this again this morning and decided there's no time like the present to remind all of us, what is at stake in our 2020 Presidential election.  Dear Michael, Matthew and Delaney - Do you remember when Mom went on a bus with about 40 other women to Washington D.C. for the Million Mom March? I was upset with the the mass shootings at places like Columbine High School, and I wanted to do something, anything to make the world a better place for the three-not-so-little Piggins. I called home as the bus was pulling into DC and one of you, I can't remember, said something like, "Have you started marching yet?" I held back my laugh and tried to explain that this 'march' didn't actually mean 'marching'.  Growing up in a home where Mom and Dad supported different political parties meant you grew up listening to political dialogue that wasn't always pleasant but never per

When I was about 10 or 11, and trying as hard as I could to be a good swimmer, I was told by the swim club's coach that some swimmers are fast and others should consider water ballet. Maybe he didn't say it exactly like that, but that was the message I heard. Up to this point, I'd managed to 'compete' in only one swim meet and that was in the exhibition lane. (For those unfamiliar with the exhibition lane, it's a designated lane usually one of the side lanes, where coaches place slower swimmers giving them a sense of what being a 'real' competitor feels like, perhaps to serve as motivation to work harder at being a faster swimmer.) I was actually stopped before I'd completed my final lap and asked to exit the pool so the next 'heat' could begin. I'm pretty sure, though memory is a tricky thing, that the next practice is when the coach shared his words of wisdom. I was already humiliated, from the meet. (I'd had to exit the pool, and