George Martzen "georgos"

Today I celebrate caregivers.   Caregivers are volunteer or paid persons who care for someone who is ill or disabled, and sometimes advocate for them. I especially celebrate family members who are caregivers. Of course, parents spend years as caregivers for their children. Eventually, the roles reverse, and children often become caregivers in their parents’ last years. Spouses often end up as caregivers for each other.  Chin Cheak Yu, my wife of 32 years, is now my caregiver.     She reminds me that her gift of caring starts with the wedding vows - "for richer, for poorer, for sickness and in health."  We are a retired clergy couple, so we are both professionals in our field, and, up until recently, we have both shared the load at home, from cooking to cleaning to finances. Not now. While I can still take care of my basic needs, my breathlessness now makes most other household tasks practically impossible. I have to move slowly to conserve energy, and the slight...

I enjoy watching Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrine "Pippin" Took mature in Tolkien’s  Lord of the Rings  saga.  More than anyone else, these two young hobbits who follow Frodo and Sam from the Shire in their quest to return the ring, develop a strong sense of agency that makes important contributions to the plot.   Unlike other hobbits, Merry and Pippin actually looked forward to the adventure, though they had little idea of what they were getting into.  Nevertheless, for much of the story, they see themselves as useless baggage, because they don't have much experience, they don’t quite get the seriousness of the journey, and they make some unfortunate blunders.   Things changed when, through a series of mishaps, they ended up instigating the Ents (tree herders) to take on Saruman, the great wizard who was clearcutting the forest. From there they each ended up pledging service to the allied leaders, the King of Rohan for Merry and the Stew...