Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

2025 has had its joys and its horrors. My country has taken the lead in worsening the climate, has increased childhood measles, has ended the rule of law to the point where armed goons grab people off the street if they don't look white enough. Cuts in USAID funding have doomed thousands to die of starvation for no particular reason. Billionaires like Musk decimate the folk in our federal government who actually help people and then just walk away. And yet we resist. I was born in the early 60's, raised fundamentalist, taught about martyrs facing violence and death to stand for what was right. My folks pointed me to Christian martyrs in history while I followed the Freedom Riders  and  other civil rights activists who were doing this in real time. I heard Bernard Lafayette of the SNCC, a surviving Freedom Rider, speak once about how the only folk who made things better were in it for the long haul, and that every loss was an opportunity. I try to have that kind of hope, the ki...

I have been teaching for 37 years now, and I go through many of the same things at the end of the Fall semester each year. There is relief at the completion of a significant task (teaching each of my classes) but there is a good deal of physical and mental weariness and aches. I could sleep for several days straight if not for my sleep disorder. By and large my mind is not very sharp and as an introvert I try to be pleasant with loved ones but am not outgoing at all. With age the feeling of being drained deepens in more and more ways. Of course this is when we have, almost every year, taken a road trip to visit birth families in the Northeast, a full day of driving each way, often involving winter weather far worse than what we are accustomed to in NC. I love my birth family members as well but as with my created family I am weary and not very outgoing. The conversation is rarely about me and my day-to-day life but rather about younger family members and family friends that I do not kn...

It is strange to me remembering how many cars I have owned as I don't think of myself as being as old as I am.  I've moved on to my next one after losing my previous one to a deer collision and renting a car (paid for by my insurance). Because I have an hour commute I typically stow a good amount of gear that I may need during the day in my trunk. Because I often do road trips I stow things that I may need inside my car. While waiting to replace my car I felt the lack of those two storages; not so much that I needed them but more so that I am more materialistic than I like to think and draw security from these things. I do not enjoy shopping and technology has made it possible for me to scout what I want on the internet pretty freely before making a purchase at my own pace without having to interact with other human beings. I am an introvert and while I enjoy the company of others it does drain me. Once my insurance claim had cleared I shopped on Saturday for a commuter car, so...