Comments for Transition Times

Comment on Commencement 2013: Questions for Ben Bernanke by leavergirl

leavergirl — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:39:21 +0000

“I hope that Ben Bernanke, who well knows the school and the type of students it attracts, will speak to them frankly and in good faith about the challenges ahead”

And your hope is based on…? Oh Jennifer. I really wish you would quit this kinda crap. Your students deserve truth from you too.

Comment on Mother’s Day Salute to my Mom by Of Flowers and Roots |

Of Flowers and Roots | — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:02:40 +0000

[…] few days ago I read my friend Jenny’s blog post, Mother’s Day Salute to my Mom – a loving tribute to her mother and her gardening. This started me thinking about my own […]

Comment on Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who? by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez

Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:36:42 +0000

Good to see you here on Transition Times, Judy! Yes, we do have to get more active. It’s pretty clear that individual “green” actions, while satisfying and important in the personal sphere, are not going to be enough to turn global warming around and save the world as we know it. This is a very dangerous time, and among the dangers, despair is high on the list. For me, writing is the best antidote to despair, especially when I am able to share it and get responses from kindred spirits out there in the world. Hence my new motto: Writing to right the world. I already teach a class on this, and am working on a book & a workshop/lecture series to go with it. Stay tuned! I am just revving up!

Comment on Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who? by Judy Eddy

Judy Eddy — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:59:53 +0000

Great message, Jennifer. I feel depressed and frozen about what it going on. Signing petitions, writing letters and calling my representatives just doesn’t feel like enough anymore. I need to dig out my protest shoes and shine them up. Growing my own vegetables, refusing plastic bags and packaging, turning the lights off, it’s all important, but not enough. And as I am following on http://www.greenisthenewred.com, the powers that be want to throw people in jail for peaceful civil disobedience and for revealing cruelty in the animal food industry. Enough!

Comment on Coming to you live from the studios of WBCR-LP, 97.7 FM, Great Barrington…. by New Clear Vision | If Not Now, When?

New Clear Vision | If Not Now, When? — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:33:19 +0000

[…] at Simon’s Rock, and directs the annual Berkshire Festival of Women Writers and the new Citizen Journalism Project at WBCR-LP. She is a Contributing Author for New Clear Vision, and blogs at Transition […]

Comment on Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who? by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez

Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:11:08 +0000

Thanks for the reblog, Jan! Last night I stayed up late reading Eve Ensler’s new memoir from start to finish. An awesome book, and I want to immediately read it again, slower. She shows quite clearly how her activism has its source in pain, in deep feeling. She also shows how she went through a period of denying her feelings, and that was so much more (self)destructive. All great activism must be fueled by deep emotion, whether it be love or horror or a combination of both. This is hard for “a heart to hold.” But that is our work, and “if not us, who? if not now, when?”

Comment on Is the time ever right for suicide? by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez

Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:07:32 +0000

Jan, I have thought about this too. I remember being so shocked when Carolyn Heilbrun chose to end her life…but I was only in my 20s at the time and could not possibly understand her vantage point, which comes ever closer to me now. We hold on to life instinctively, like trees or squirrels. But we should be able to go as gracefully as they do, too. I have been quietly exploring the different avenues, scientific and spiritual, that have insight to offer about death and what comes next. It seems like for the dying one, death is a beautiful release. It’s the loved ones left behind who suffer. I don’t know if I would have the courage to take my own life in the face of advancing Alzheimers or another terminal and terrible disease like cancer. But I hope so.

Comment on Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who? by What a Heart Can Hold

What a Heart Can Hold — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:59:18 +0000

Reblogged this on What a Heart Can Hold and commented: Lately, I have been sharing blogs that have particularly affected me. This one touched me to my core. How about you? What does it make you think, feel, or want to do? What is the action we can take to really make a difference?

Comment on Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who? by What a Heart Can Hold

What a Heart Can Hold — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:57:14 +0000

This gave me chills and left me wordless and crying. We must keep working. I hope my book can make even a small difference, but I know a small difference is no where near enough.

Comment on Is the time ever right for suicide? by What a Heart Can Hold

What a Heart Can Hold — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:49:10 +0000

Jennifer,
I have thought seriously about suicide as an option and have even discussed it with my adult children. It has never been because of depression or pain of any sort, I cared for my father with Alzheimer’s Disease for 5 years and I saw him lose everything that made him who he was (or at least that is how it appeared to those of us who knew and loved him.) He not only did not recognize us, he did not recognize himself. He was fearful, sad, isolated and really the complete opposite of the person he had been.
I saw how it affected my mother and my older brother and I lived with a growing sadness each day as he lost another little piece of himself. I know that I do not want my husband and children to live with my long, slow loss of myself if I end up with Alzheimer’s. Not only, do I want to spare them, I want to spare myself that kind of life,
The verdict among my 5 sons is mixed. Two support the idea, two are on the fence, and one is completely against it. My husband says it has to be my choice, he does not support it, nor does he condemn it.
I don’t know if I would have the courage to actually go through with it. From what I know about Alzheimer’s I would have to make the choice early on during the course of the disease because if I waited I wouldn’t know what to do, or even that I had a plan.Could I make that choice early on, when we would all be hoping for some miraculous medical intervention to halt the disease’s progress? I don’t know.
But I do know that I am strong and resilient. I know that I raised 5 sons as a single mom starting when the oldest was 14. I know that I never gave up when I was doing what I thought was best for them. I know that I am surrounded by a loving family of sons, daughter-in-laws, grandchildren and my second husband. I know i have friends who love and care about me. I know that every day I find reasons to smile and laugh, and usually, as I look at our weary planet, reasons to cry too. I know that I love to dance and to sing. My dancing is clumsy; my singing is off key, but I don’t care. I find great joy in life and I have a lifetime of memories. I think that I want to die when I still find joy in life, when I still know who I am, and before my family has to suffer the sorrow and burden of losing me in ways big and small day after day.
That would be my final gift to myself and to my children.