Marriage

Most of us are or have been in a marriage, and certainly all of us have witnessed the marriages of relatives and friends.

Shakespeare famously said, “let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” What do you think makes a good marriage? Can we ever know what goes on in another couple’s marriage?

The contemporary novelist Rebecca Makkah has said, “You’ll never know anyone’s marriage but your own. And even then you’ll only know half of it.”

Think back about Marriage and share forward.

Community

We gather in communities: families, neighborhoods, states, nations, tribes, subcultures, and communes. Humans are herd-instinct creatures and so we gather. But community is fluid and fragile; it can be improved or harmed from within or without. Despite our herd instincts, some people may choose to live outside the community, or even “off the grid.”

How do you experience community? Has your relationship to community changed over time or been altered by people and events? Did love, war, life, death, or Covid change your community and your place in it?  What could community become in the future?

Think back about Community and share forward!

Retirement

Are you retired?  Is your spouse retired or are any of your close friends retired?

If you are,  how did you know when it was time, or was your retirement mandatory?  How has the experience been:  good, bad, or still working it out?

How are you enjoying life now on your own schedule? What are you doing to fill the time?  Do you have too much time on your hands?  By no longer working, do you feel a loss of relevancy or achievement?

Think back about Retirement and share forward!

Fire

Evidence shows that humanity has used fire for two million years.

We use fire for cooking, for light, to forge tools, and to ward off predators. We’ve also used fire as a weapon, to destroy property, nature, and as an instrument of torture.

Has fire affected your life? Do you have fond memories of campfires with friends, or romantic candlelight dinners,  or blowing out the candies on childhood birthday cakes?  Or have you unfortunately lost property, loved ones, or suffered injury from a fire?

Think back about Fire and share forward.