I could write an essay titled “Oblivious” once a month. Its definition is, after all, “not aware of or not concerned about what is happening around one.” I could spend plenty of time castigating others who don’t seem to know what I know for being oblivious of current political, health, cultural, or other trends. Conversely,…

So much regrettable behavior is born of fear. Because we fear being judged for all kinds of reasons from all kinds of sources, we sometimes neglect to be “real,” to expose our personal “lack.” It can be lack of specific knowledge, experience, money, things, or “important” friends. Yes, and this fear of exposing our vulnerability…

People refer to exploring what lies beneath the surface. A duck seems to glide across the water, but if you look beneath the calm surface his webbed feet are paddling like crazy. What lies beneath is often unseen effort or even struggle. He works harder than we think to move forward and to make it…

My plan was to write about something much more serious today, but what the heck! The Barbie doll was introduced to America in 1959, when I was seven years old. Although I had a houseful of beautiful dolls of all sorts, I never owned a Barbie. Mother determined her to be “obscene.” Perhaps she knew…

I never would have thought it to be true. In fact, for almost the first two decades of my life, I barely thought of it, and certainly didn’t understand it. But in every generation, there comes a time when there is nothing more important than being one. Were it not so, there probably would have…

I admit that I can sometimes be suggestible. Yea verily I say unto you, I am often the online marketer’s dream. Mother used to say with a sigh, “Barbara, your problem is you keep trusting the wrong people.” My response was, “No, Mother, I try to trust everyone. I try to give the benefit of…