Tonight while a mob is attacking government buildings, while I am sitting safe by the fire at the foot of a mountain in a town where I know college students have been threatened a mile away and somehow stood tall and gone on, I am reading Danusha Lameris’ poems for the first time.
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Berkshire conversations begin to probe the future (November 4 newsletter)
We’re on pause tonight. The country is waiting for a decision that can re-shape our lives, and we’re hunkered down. Daylight Savings is past, and the nights are getting longer and darker. It can be easy to feel cut off on a night like this.
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Opening a conversation takes courage
How are you? That seems like such a small question in these hard days. It should be a simple thing to turn to someone with warmth and respect. And right now it feels vital.
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John Steinbeck calls attention to fall color on the back roads
If I could be anywhere in the world today, I’d be here. I might be here in 1960, when John Steinbeck drove through with Charley (his dog) in the cab of his truck.
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How do we respond as Massachusetts starts to reopen?
The governor’s announcement this week allows some local places to begin to reopen, and it raises questions for all of us as. And as I talk with you about the community, it raises questions for me.
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Art in her hands at International Women’s Day — By the Way column
Women known around the world in art and music have come to the Berkshires, and we remember them as Women’s History Month honors International Women’s Day.
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I believe: A manifesto for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
A friend of mine created a workshop where people could build manifestos. A manifesto is a public declaration of intention — in other words: I have a dream.
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Marchers fill the street at the Four Freedoms Rally (By the Way column)
We are standing in a crowd outside the First Church of Christ in Park Square. I have never seen so many people in downtown Pittsfield outside of a street festival … On a Saturday afternoon in January 2017, some 2,000 people marched up North Street in a rally with the Four Freedoms Coalition.
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Standing together: Thoughts before the electoral vote — By the Way column
Since the election, I have been trying to think. Like many people I love, I am afraid for the country I live in, and I’m afraid for people I love.
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Looking for light on long nights in the mountains (By the Way column)
This is an unusual holiday season. For some of us, looking out at a divided country, it is difficult to know how to face the end of this year and the beginning of the next.
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