Middle Ground: A Novella And Collection Of Short Stories

This collection of fiction - a novella and a collection of short stories - focuses on the commonality of the human condition. While we create separations for ourselves by focusing on distinctions such as, religion, class, gender, and race, we are, I believe, spiritual beings sharing a human experience. My work tends to explore these distinctions and our motivations for embracing them. In the novella, Middle Ground, two sisters in alternating narrative voices share the story of their parents\u27 struggles with separation, sobriety and cancer. Their voices, as distinct as their perspectives, explore the landscape of a family, the borders between forgiveness and acceptance, the self-preserving act of looking beyond imperfections and weaknesses, and the realization that truth is an illusion and flawed love the only certainty. The short story collection consists of eight pieces. Many of these stories explore characters in a state of recovery - a brain tumor operation, a death of a spouse, a shot to the head where a bullet rests and reminds - and plot occurs as these characters attempt to move on. They meet sandhill cranes who cry out in pain for the death of another, lovers who speak in italics, vets who swear that the blasted silence is louder than King Kong screaming in your ear. They sit with shrinks who lie, sleep with poets who stray, compete with incarcerated ex-husbands who were man enough to put a gun to a woman\u27s head and pull the trigger. They are nothing - and everything - like all of us, and readers are invited to join the characters beside the mirror of our collective Middle Ground

Sustainable Urban Agriculture

Loyola’s Sustainable Urban Agriculture program (Urban Ag) provided me with experiences in hydroponics, aquaponics, indoor mushroom cultivation, outdoor farming, and selling produce at a farmer’s market. Sustainable agriculture techniques are becoming increasingly important globally with growing population and rising food insecurity as a result of the pandemic. Urban Ag completely changed my preferred career path and introduced me to so many likeminded people. My experience as an Urban Ag intern was so valuable to me that I applied for a paid position in the program where I now lead groups of interns in hydroponics production and maintenance

Do What You Love (and the Money Might Follow)

When I was an undergrad in the middle of the Material Girl 80s, I don’t remember anyone — a professor, a parent or even a random guy on the street (or in the career counseling center) — ever telling me to “do what I love and the money will follow.” And while author Marsha Sinetar released her book with the same title in 1989, the year I graduated from college, it never showed up as a graduation gif

Bearing Witness Even When It Seems Too Much to Bear

My husband wanted to go to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest last summer as we traveled in Germany. We were planning our itinerary for our time in Munich and I responded as if he’d just admitted to buying tickets for “The Jerry Springer Show.” Why would I want to go to the Alps retreat where Hitler hung out and chatted up “dignitaries”

Exploring Metaethical Commitments: Moral Objectivity and Moral Progress

Presents the results of our study comparing two different approaches (those of Goodwin and Darley 2008, and Sarkissian et al. 2011) to empirically measuring people's belief in moral objectivity. Examines the relationship between belief in moral objectivity and two other metaethical attitudes: belief in moral progress and belief in a just world

The Social Media Mirage (and What We\u27re Missing)

A large man in a black bear suit walks onscreen in a YouTube video. He stops in the middle of some guys tossing around two basketballs, makes some awkward 80s dance moves, and then moonwalks off the screen so well even Michael Jackson might have been impressed. More than 100 of my students watch the video in class. Not one of them see him

Don’t Label Teens Dying in Our Streets – We Mourn Them All

Michael Brown was “no angel,” The New York Times reported, and “a handful” who later “overcame early struggles in school to graduate on time.” Trayvon Martin was a polite, shy volunteer, CNN informed us, while pointing out his 10-day drug-related suspension from school