By Neal Lemery This time of quarantine, social distancing, staying home is a new order in society. Our social connections can become frayed, even severed. The many events of daily life have…
Category: Neal Lemery
Hunkering Down
OIOpublisher By Neal Lemery The morning drizzle finds me inside, sorting and organizing, rediscovering my writing space. Long neglected filing cabinets and piles of papers are now getting sorted. I have a…
POETRY: Slow Time
Came upon me, day by day, Press conference by briefing by social media posting, Until I had had my fill of crisis, breaking news, until I felt the Call of boots and…
The Extra Day
By Neal Lemery Leap Day. It only shows up on the calendar every four years, and sometimes not even then, being quirky and a human invention to try to define and measure…
Op/Ed: An Example of Bad Taste And Worse …
EDITOR’S NOTE: And worse … the image is on the front page. After a request from the victim’s husband to remove the image from social media, and a huge outcry from the…
Making Our Communities Age Friendly
By Neal Lemery, for the Pioneer In ten years, our population of seniors 75 years and older will double. Yet, only 1% of our housing has the amenities that will allow seniors…
My Favorite Books of 2019
EDITOR’S NOTE: Books – so many books, so little time to read – always a dilemma, and I find myself relying on the advice of other readers. Neal Lemery’s wide-ranging reading provides…
Wanting Change: How Does That Happen?
By Neal Lemery Often, I react to the news with despair, anger and frustration. I remind myself that the “news” is often sensationalized, that the news business is a business, and that…
Small Miracles
by Neal Lemery I often forget about the small miracles in my life until the world of nature gently reminds me with a new discovery, or a new awareness of something rather…
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer
By Neal Lemery When I was a kid, Nat King Cole made this a popular song, and the lyrics still seem to sum up summertime on the Oregon coast, with an increasingly…