Blog Archives - trish hermanson

Time to Take a Page from the Pilgrims' and Native Americans' Playbook?

11/23/2020

Yikes!- following the presidential election, half the country is relieved, half is up in arms, many face job losses and food insecurity, and more than 250,000 have died from Covid. Yet we’re supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving? How can we, especially when some argue that the Pilgrim/Native American story isn’t even true? But assuming some of it is, perhaps it’s time to take a page from the playbook of those first Americans.
Four hundred years ago nearly half of the Pilgrims died from disease, and their economy was shot. Then they encountered Native Americans, radically different in their beliefs. Each group was a threat to the other. But instead of taking up arms, the two groups exchanged gifts, cut a treaty to not harm each other, then celebrated a Thanksgiving feast. In years to come, the Pilgrims learned how valuable it was to welcome those who differed from them. Natives taught them farming techniques and introduced a fur trade that prospered all of them. How history would have been for the better if both groups had kept that attitude.
     So here we are approaching the end of 2020. On social media and in the streets we’ve encountered people with radically different beliefs who we think threaten us. Perhaps it’s time we put down our arms, cut a treaty to not harm each other, and search for how to work together to prosper.
     After all, this Thanksgiving season we do have much to be thankful for - we’re alive!

     ***    Artwork: Clipart Library.

The Flip that Flopped

11/13/2020

A few years back I’d tried to flip a house for profit. I tore out orange and green shag carpet and repainted faded walls to transform an eyesore into an invitation.
     But the market was sluggish. The only serious buyer asked for money towards closing costs, a home warranty, and a backyard fence. So in order to move that property, I gave in. And what did I get? Nothing but a cheap plastic pen from the title company that I was using to scribble my name at closing.
     The buyer, a young woman, sat across the table. “I have an eight-year-old daughter,” she whispered. "You understand how important a fence is.” “Uh-huh.” I clutched the pen as I hunched over the pile of papers. “I finally got out of debt, and here I am going back in again,” she said, staring off into space. I glanced at her hand. No wedding band. “But it’s a good debt,” I said quietly. “We had to move,” she continued. “A guy in our neighborhood was threatening us with a gun.” I swallowed hard.
      We finished signing papers, shook hands, and I walked to the parking lot and sat alone in my car. Maybe this wasn’t such a sour deal after all. Maybe it had gone just as it should have.
  Because sometimes someone else’s gain will cost me. Is that really a problem?