by Jule Kucera | Dec 18, 2022 | Blog
I’ve just wrapped up teaching at UC this semester. It was an unusual class. There is always one student who lets me know they are struggling with thoughts of self-harm, but this year there were several dealing with significant mental health challenges. Anxiety....
by Jule Kucera | Dec 11, 2022 | Blog
“Everything you eat has to die for you to eat it.” This is something Trent said. It’s the reason I’m an omnivore, not a vegetarian. For me to live, everything I eat must die. I suppose fruit is a technicality, but I’m stealing the food the fruit seed needed to grow...
by Jule Kucera | Dec 4, 2022 | Blog
My mom may have encouraged me to ignore auto exhaust, but she raised me to be conscious of the weather. Mom grew up on a small farm in Nebraska, dirt poor. It was the kind of farm that is almost extinct—a farm with a little of everything. There were crops and cows,...
by Jule Kucera | Nov 27, 2022 | Blog
I’m worried about the planet. This is not new. I was worried in grade school when I held my breath as school buses dropped us off and pulled away, when I stepped back from idling cars. Mom said not to worry about the fumes and to set the table. Dad launched into a...
by Jule Kucera | Nov 20, 2022 | Blog
When 9/11 happened, I was in a sailboat in the Mediterranean with seven friends, one captain, and one crew person|chef. We didn’t have a cell connection or wifi. Our news viewing was restricted to the end of the day, on whatever TV we could find in whatever bar,...
by Jule Kucera | Nov 13, 2022 | Blog
On Saturday, October 22, I heard Aaron Sorkin speak at the Niehoff Lecture for the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati. A week later, I drove to Lexington, Kentucky to hear Barbara Kingsolver speak. She is another author hero of mine, but more of a personal totem. The...
