Celebrating Life

Deborah Ladd, Guest Blogger I heard a someone say that, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..." must come together. How many ways can we do this in a seemingly graceless time? Sometimes it’s in the work place.  On the very last day I walked towards  the final closing of the door behind me. I was moving more towards my future in front of me, rather than the memories behind me. But I was holding on in that moment. Then I realized that I would miss the more perfect “unions” of the people and their lives …bittersweet. Maya Angelou once said that, ”…you remember the way people make you feel.” Yes, you see I remembered how I felt  right at the intersection of those in between moments I guess you can call it a “union”. We unite in those in between spaces,  that fall in and out if time. It was in the stories told about the weekends and vacations. It was in the soft wave of a hello or in a ...

  I grew up living in an apartment in Harlem. When I moved to L.A. I lived in an apartment there. It wasn’t my desire to have a house though after experiencing rents that went up without explanation, downstairs neighbors that harassed my child when she walked across the floor or a landlord who was reluctant to fix a leaky toilet or replace a blown out light bulb on the stairs, I began to seriously think about buying a house. Home ownership in my chosen area was beyond my meager salary; however, after much searching, I finally found a house I could afford though it was many miles away from my job.  That was years ago before the catastrophe in the housing industry. But when I hear people say, “Not all people should have a house. They should be content to live in an apartment,” I wince. Not because what they are saying is true in some instances, but because it implies only certain people should have a house. I wonder if those who say this ever lived in an apartment where ren...