Category: In This Together

Crawfish Boil

It was perfect weather for a New Orleans-style crawfish boil at the home of my in-laws. The food was tipped onto the table, and we picked food up with our fingers. The table was covered in plastic, rather than (traditional) newspapers. These days, our newspapers are digital.

Easter Dinner

Set the table for a family Easter dinner this evening. The silverware is stainless steel, manufactured in Sheffield, England. My mother-in-law cut up and hemmed an old table cloth to make the napkins.

First Communion

Attended our 11-year-old nephew’s first communion at Faith Lutheran in Forest Lake, MN.

Categorized as Family

There Is No Road

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road
only a ship’s wake on the sea.

Teaching

Students called me “teacher.” My best title, ever.

Parkland Shooting Survivor

Attended a packed Westminster Town Hall Forum to listen to 18-year-old David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland mass shooting. He talked about gun violence: root causes, the law that prevents the government collecting statistics, and ways we can participate.

We All Win

Walked through “Little Mogadishu” (the Cedar Riverside neighborhood) on my way to buy groceries. As with earlier immigrant groups, the Minneapolis economy benefits from Somalis working hard for better lives for themselves and their families. We all win.

Self-Sufficiency

We decided we only need one car: generally, I prefer walking or transit. Donated our 1996 Honda Civic, with 83,000 miles on the clock, to the Newgate School. The school promotes self-sufficiency: students learn car maintenance, tuition-free; single moms are given cars at no cost.

Categorized as Share

All My Relations Gallery

Visited All My Relations Gallery to see an exhibition honoring missing and murdered Native American women. While a missing white woman can get saturation coverage, these women usually go unreported in our media.