Village Green/Town²

In  a time that seems quite long ago, I joined neighbors and friends in support of  filling the empty commercial space at Thunder Hill and 175 with a Walgreen's store. I had, for 12 years, kept all of my prescriptions at the Bolton Hill Pharmacy in Baltimore because Oakland Mills had no neighborhood drugstore.  I was happy to champion the cause of a much-needed business located "within walking distance of my home." It's true that I even threw a party at my home when they broke ground, with many of the refreshments purchased at (the River Hill) Walgreen's, just for fun.  I normally get my groceries at the Food Lion, and that certainly hasn't changed. Friends of mine from nearby villages pointed out that it would be more convenient, and a savings of gas, to come to the Oakland Mills store when it opened.  And of course, I crowed, it would be"within walking distance of my home."  Walgreen's opened on a Friday in mid-June.  It has been a wonder...

I have been considering this week what makes me a loyal follower of some local blogs, while with others I remain a casual visitor.  We have quite the choice in Howard County: some are witty, some informative,some challenging, some acerbic, some downright depressing.  Some appear to be thinly disguised commercial ventures. The blogs that draw me, again and again, are ones whose writers appear to be following this simple process:  learn more, think more.  And then , they write. Perhaps this is the blogger's equivalent of "measure twice, cut once."  Willingness to learn more, and to really think about what is learned gives the blogger the ability to grow and change over time.  This doesn't guarantee that the blogger will necessarily always reach the correct conclusions, or that the blogger is then a "better person" than other bloggers, or even that I will agree with the resulting posts.  It means that Jane/John Q. Blogger acknowledges that she/he is n...

Yesterday was a big day for my daughter's school, Talbott Springs Elementary. Principal Nancy Thompson set the tone for a positive experience for her students. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman paid a visit to TSES, along with Howard County Health Officer Peter Beilenson, to support the "30 Day Soda Free" Pledge. Also there to show support was Superintendent Dr. Sidney Cousin of the Howard County Public Schools. . When reporters and cameras from local media outlets show up, it's an exciting occasion. This post is NOTabout the initiative, local dignitaries, Talbott Springs, or media coverage. It is about one child:  my child. And about how my involvement in local affairs has affected her. When asked about the event, she said, "I wasn't sure I wanted to raise my hand (to take the pledge) but it was Ken Ulman , and WBAL was there..." (emphasis hers) Yes, that's right. She was keenly aware of the presence of local politicos and the press. And...

No one is keen on the concept of mortality. We may understand it in the abstract, but it is just incomprehensible when it gets personal. The only way I can get my mind around it is to look at my beautiful daughters. If everyone lived forever and no one died, there wouldn't be room for them . And so we make room. Only love can get me that far, and not reason. I recently smacked up against mortality in a whole new way after I attended one of the Columbia Associations #AquaPlan meetings. It was extremely well run and I felt they had truly been doing their homework as they moved through the stated process. I came away feeling as though there were many possibilities. I felt hopeful. But I also had some questions. I wanted to know: how many pools are there per village, and is there any correlation between population and number of pools? When I asked these questions on Twitter, it appeared that this was too touchy an issue to talk about in a public forum. Some of the respon...

Village Green/Town Squared Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:20pm Print "Congratulations on your award," a friend of mine from the PTA mentioned in passing. "I have to admit, I didn't know you had a blog." Well...(wincing internally, here.) Yes, I did have a blog, at Columbia Patch. I wrote eight blogs posts in May and June of this year. The support from friends in the #hoco was encouraging. And then something happened that burst my blogging balloon, so to speak. I witnessed a decision which I felt was so stupid and wrong-headed that my righteous indignation went into high gear and I poured it into my ninth and most passionate blog post. And then I had to swallow the fact that it was better not to publish it. Until then my greatest fear about blogging was the specter of nasty comments. But it turns out that the deadliest poison was saying nothing. To choose to say nothing. It's true--sometimes saying nothing is the right th...