1 insane person
And too many God damned guns
We’ve seen this before
20 empty desks
40 empty little shoes
Countless empty laps
20 empty beds
20 holes in the night sky
With light leaking through
20 small coffins
20 headstones each weighing
As much as the world
And 8 large coffins
6 holding brave protectors
Can we be as brave?
Complicated, yes,
But clear: Unless we’re as brave
We’ll see this again
Greg's Hack-u 
Liz’s Year in Review I apologize for the dryness of this letter. I’m afraid it’s more an inventory than a graceful, entertaining Christmas greeting. Did you know I turn 82 on January 22? Health: This seems to be ‘up and down.’ Fortunately I’m able to get ‘patched up’ every so many months with iron infusions and blood transfusions. I’ve had one dreadful hospital stay that convinced me that I’d much rather die than spend another day trapped in the malfunctioning Hades of the medical bureaucracy. I’ve switched primary doctors a to geriatrician He is trying to help me with my slowed recall for ‘nouns.’ Relatives: My family is such a blessing!!!! Brother, Mike, and his dear diminutive Indonesian wife, Narti come up from Houston several times a year. Otherwise we stay in touch through the miracle of modern technology. My kids are simply wonderful! Between the two of them I have four grown (or almost) grandkids. Of course, I think they are beyond perfect, One is a college sophomore, another a high school senior and twins who are juniors. (However, all is not perfect. My only granddaughter has been experiencing a chronic painful illness resulting in her having to miss a lot of school.) Daughter, Lisa, is putting a lot of hours in her Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician role at Children’s Mercy Hospital. She is so loving and supportive. Son, Steve, is equally overextended with his business. However, he is my rock and my staff, my friend, and major-domo. I stay in touch but not nearly often enough, with my Mississippi and California cousins. My relationship with my cousin, Terry (who is only 8 months younger than I.) continues across the years. Special Friends: I am so very, very, blessed with wonderful people in my life They are my support, my delight, my solace, and my teachers. In this stage of my existence, I’ve ended up with almost no material wealth (in terms of either belongings or money), but I have such riches of companionship! Activities: TV: I am home a good portion of most days. I figured out I had become addicted to TV — and to such mundane and inane programs that I found so easy to sit and watch. I decided to turn TV off for a year. It was such a satisfying practice (no commercials i.e.), that I have pretty much continued without it. My son, assuming I needed TV for occasional news, programs, and comfort, recently hooked me up again. (He has provided me with a larger screen,) I continue to watch only once in a blue moon. (For instance I watched some of the election specials.) Reading: I have now become just as addicted to the library. I order, pick up, and devour materials daily. Such a pleasure!!! With my poor naming abilities, I mostly peruse nonfiction (Can’t remember the characters in novels.) Entertainment: My passion for music and theater has pretty much been thwarted. I don’t have the resources to buy tickets. I am no longer coordinated and strong enough to usher so am unable to get in free. Though I’m still driving, I find it challenging to venture out at night when most of the events are presented. I can’t remember when I’ve been to a movie theater. However, I watch loads of free DVD’s from the library. Every now and then a friend will treat me. However, I manage to fill my time with other interests. Dining: Being on a very tight budget, I seldom eat out. However, my real motivation for eliminating dining out is that I find the greatest pleasure in cooking simple meals for friends or simply having them over for coffee. Groups: I have a little bouquet of groups that with one exception meet at my house. Monthly I host a Friday evening Neuroscience Feedback Group as well as a Second Tuesday Delightful Conversations Group. Weekly, I have a meditation group. I to bi-weeky therapy practice staffings to keep up as a licensed psychlogist. Church: For the past decade I’ve been immersed in my local church. I decided last spring to take a leave of absence for six months. During this thinking time the congregation relocated several miles west, making the commute difficult for me. I have just now decided to go back to my original worship community. It’s nearer and peopled with age-cohorts. I’ve found it emotionally difficult to make the shift, but now made, I feel the tremendous joy of relief. With the return to my old church, I’m seriously thinking of starting a center for active elderly. Professional: My therapy practice is still alive but limited. In addition to individual clients, I’m working on two projects: One is for a social skills group for high-functioning attention deficit/Asperger’s teens. The other is a discussion group for adults in their twenties that will deal with new discoveries about extended brain development for that age. Social Networking: Like most of you, I’m actively immersed in Facebook and LinkedIn. They take up a lot of my time, but bring me so much pleasure! Memoir: One of my Mississippi cousins decided to write a book about our grandfather and asked me for some reminiscences. I so delighted in the project, that my son suggested a memoir about the year his dad and I spent in Paris in the early part of our marriage. I’m working on this. It has brought back such wonderful recollections!!!! I had no idea that I was going to go on and on and on. Just know if you are getting this, that you are a very special person to me. Don’t feel pushed to read it, much less reply. Here’s w ishing you a very, very, very happy 2013. Love, Liz Campbell