A bored and lonely looking child picked berries one-by-one from my front hedge and mechanically ground each into the pile of snow I’d just swept from the public walk. In a ‘normal’ year, I might have given a short lesson about birds depending on berries in winter, or asked the child to not crush berry-stained snow into the sidewalk. One year into the pandemic, I let the small member of Generation COVID have that twenty minutes of entertainment. Conflict Competence for physically distanced children As I’m fond of saying, conflict… Read more Tips for Teaching Conflict Competence to Physically Distanced Children →
Alternative to resolutions Could you summarize in a sentence what you’ve learned from your life’s work, or a relationship, special interest or hobby? I decided to try that instead of… Read more Conflict Mental Maps →
Loneliness is a modern epidemic Standing in line at a grocery store, I overheard a customer tell the clerk ringing through her order, “I never use the self-service option because… Read more What color is loneliness? →
Fictional guest list for a fake dinner Imagine your ideal dinner party guests, whether living, dead, invented, or mythical. Mine range and change, currently Marie Curie, Superman, Julie Payette, John Legend, and Oprah. Only one guest remains… Read more The convictions of one’s courage →
This short story was my 2005 birthday gift to a friend. In 2008, mediate.com made an exception to its nonfiction content rules to publish it. In 2013, I added it to… Read more An Improbable Tale Of Alien Romance →
Just because we were unaware before and forgot after, doesn’t mean a problem no longer exists. Collective attention focuses on an important and immediate problem until social media hashtags hit their… Read more Hashtag expiry dates on important issues →
Deborah Sword 