A Bicycle Built for Three

  The world only makes sense if you force it to.  "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016) This has been such a difficult month.  Amidst following the Kansas City Chiefs to the bitter end of their season to so far dodging every major round of illness going around (knock on sanitized wood) to the breaking news updates that appear constantly, we've been riding out the waves as best we can.  Most recently I've been thinking about a little boy across the world -- who was the same age as Little Man and also loved Batman -- and the heartbreak his family is enduring.  Little Man is blissfully unaware of bigger pictures, yet things are happening that will impact him and so many others in so many ways.  I try to avoid getting caught up in the negativity, but it can be hard when it permeates the nooks and crannies of life.  Looking at him I am alternately cheered by his good spirits and anxious at how those might get crushed. This month in particular it's bee...

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."  -- Desmond Tutu Today is the start of Black History Month.  Normally I would wish to reflect on its impact and implications -- and two years ago I did just that in a previous post -- but given the state of our country over the last few weeks that feels impossible to do.  The very things that form the foundations of hope each February are being stripped away at an alarming rate; there is confusion, depression, and fear all around.  I want this to be a time when I can celebrate Little Man's growth as he learns from those who came before him, but this year I can only feel grateful that he can't yet understand how the world is changing before his eyes. To hear people sling terms like diversity, equity, and inclusion like arrows rather than spread them like open arms is disheartening.  History is repeating itself as things like merit suddenly lose their value and those brave enough to take a sta...