clmcdermid – clmcdermid

A Walk in the Park (Late Summer Flowers)

Aug 24, 2021

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clmcdermid

in Uncategorized

Save Our Snow Days! We Lose Something When We Go Remote During Bad Weather

Mar 14, 2021

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clmcdermid

in #getoutside, Education, Social Distancing, The Public Good, Work

Among all the things potentially ruined by the pandemic, this one is minor, and many adults may not even grieve the loss. But I hope that I am wrong and the pandemic has not permanently eliminated snow days. There is a lot to be cherished in weather closures, for kids and adults. It starts with…

Back to Nature on Boreas Pass

Sep 19, 2020

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clmcdermid

in #getoutside, Dog, Gratitude, Love in the Time of Coronavirus, The Nature

I keep thinking about the first paragraph of Moby Dick, the whole of which is on my fall reading list. “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see…

10 Things to Remember About Spring and Summer

Sep 12, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Uncategorized

Where I live, Fall has arrived abruptly with a more than 50-degree temperature swing overnight between Monday and Tuesday. Highs suddenly went from 80 or 84 to 28 and 32 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Toward the end of the week, things are climbing back up towards the 70’s, but it is assuredly no longer summer.…

How to Worry in a VUCA World

Sep 5, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Gratitude, Love in the Time of Coronavirus, Social Distancing, Socioeconomics, VUCA

I learned a new acronym today from the business world. VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. VUCA stands for 2020. Nature did not equip humans to live comfortably in a VUCA world. There are sound evolutionary reasons to prefer a stable, placid, dull environment. Even at our most adventurous, we like a calm, constant refuge…

Part Eight: Different Realities

Aug 28, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Community, Duties and Responsibilities, Keeping the Faith, Media, Polarization, The Public Good, The Public Interest, What it Could Look Like

This post is part of my series Keeping the Faith: Fostering Engaged Citizenship in the US. My Mom and I sat down over the last two weeks and watched the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. The experience made it terrifyingly apparent just how different our realities are as Americans. Camp Red America…

Part Seven: A Culture of Democracy

Aug 21, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Duties and Responsibilities, Education, Keeping the Faith, What it Could Look Like

This post is part of my series Keeping the Faith: Fostering Engaged Citizenship in the US. Part One: A Democracy in Crisis Part Two: It Doesn’t Have to be Like This — Practical Ways to Fix our Elections Part Three: Getting Off our Arses and Voting! Part Four: Too Busy to be the Public? Part…

Part Six: Internets in the Public Interest

Aug 7, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Duties and Responsibilities, Keeping the Faith, Media, Polarization, The Public Good, The Public Interest, What it Could Look Like

This post is part of my series Keeping the Faith: Fostering Engaged Citizenship in the US. Our Common Purpose: Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century highlights many things that are wrong in our democracy. Our institutions aren’t as representative as they could be. Our voting system is antiquated. Our politicians aren’t responsive. Our civil society…

Part Five: Civil Society

Jul 31, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Duties and Responsibilities, Education, Keeping the Faith, Polarization, Socioeconomics, The Public Good, What it Could Look Like

This post is part of my series Keeping the Faith: Fostering Engaged Citizenship in the US. Part One: A Democracy in Crisis Part Two: It Doesn’t Have to be Like This — Practical Ways to Fix our Elections Part Three: Getting Off our Arses and Voting! Part Four: Too Busy to be the Public? Part…

Part Four: Too Busy to be the Public?

Jul 24, 2020

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clmcdermid

in Community, Duties and Responsibilities, Keeping the Faith, Socioeconomics, The Public Good, What it Could Look Like, Work

This post is part of my series Keeping the Faith: Fostering Engaged Citizenship in the US. Jefferson County, Colorado, where I live, is having a virtual public ‘meeting’ about changes to one of the main drags through my town. They’ve done some work trying to promote it, sending postcards to impacted neighborhoods, making a few announcements on…

Author: clmcdermid