I got a desperate call from a friend this morning. She had been stewing all night over a criticism and wanted my advice.

She passed the first test which is not to react or become defensive.

The next step is to remember that criticism is all about the criticizer. What were the motivations of the criticizer? Once we uncovered the motivation, she could decide what do with it.

This is not about criticism of ideas, which is a means of discourse (although I recognize that some criticisms devolve into personal attacks). This is about personal criticisms.

When to accept or reject personal criticism and is all about the motivation of the criticizer.

Criticisms to consider:

Those that come from love or expertise (but sometimes the love is disguised).

• Expert criticism/solicited advice. This is where you have engaged an expert, a boss, or an expert has reached out to you. Be receptive but recognize that the person giving the advice has a bias.
• Love wearing a “Fear” jacket. A lot of criticism (or unsolicited advice) comes from someone who loves you but is afraid of the path that you are taking. This type of criticism or advice often begins with “You should…” It comes from love, so consider it.
• Mistake. No one likes making mistakes. But if the criticism cuts deeply, and there are no apparent biases, it could be that you made a mistake and, sadly, we learn through our mistakes.
• Fixers. These people (and I am one of them) want to make things better. They are often perfectionists (guilty again).  Consider these because they are usually coming from a genuine desire to help.
• Inadvertent criticism. This is where someone makes a statement, and you take offense to it even though it is not intended as a criticism. (For example, someone doesn’t know me mentions that she doesn’t like white dogs; and I have white dogs.) Own your sensitivity.

None of those categories fit the criticism that she received. Then we started to talk about criticisms that should be ignored.

Criticisms to ignore:

Many times criticizers are projecting their issues onto you. While you should ignore the feedback, the better angels of our nature can practice compassion.

• Emotional. This is coming from the criticizer’s mood or feelings in the moment, it could be fear, anger, pain, or just plain grumpiness. Pass.
• Critical/Judgmental Person. The goal is to find fault rather than help. Pass.
• Other Than. These criticisms come from those who see you as “other” and are threatened or uncomfortable. These are frequently generalizations. “You people” “Why can’t you….” This is often not directed at you, but your tribe. Definitely Pass.
• Self-Elevation. These people need to criticize others in order to feel good about themselves. They need compassion because they have such deep-rooted insecurities. Nevertheless, pass and avoid these people.
• Envy. Psychologists have a saying “follow the envy.” Therapists use envy to uncover a deep, unsatisfied need. But envy can also be used to understand criticism. If the criticism comes from envy, ignore it. After a lengthy conversation, my friend realized that this was the source of the complainant’s criticism.

My friend ended the conversation saying that she would try to put it in perspective, but she reminded me that even inappropriate criticism hurts. She’s right. And that may be the most important lesson of all.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

I am a queen of unsolicited advice… which is worth exactly what you pay for. But once in a while I say something that resonates with people and one of them asked me to write about it in my column.

It has been exactly a year since our world was forever changed by COVID 19. Lately, I have been reflecting on 2020, how we reacted, and what I learned.

Throughout the pandemic, our dog park in Key West remained open. Many of us who went to the park were in the high-risk group and most of our conversations centered around fear. Fear that there would be no food in the grocery store because we were literally the end of the line in America. Fear that this virus would kill us or loved ones. Fear that there was no CPE or sanitizers to protect us. Fear of empty shelves where cleaning supplies, cold remedies, meat, eggs, produce, dairy, and paper products used to be. We dared not go into the grocery stores. Empty streets, empty beaches, empty restaurants.

Each day we talked about a new scarcity, a new fear. Our conversation devolved into basic survival.

Then one day one of my favorite members of the dog park showed up with homemade masks for everyone. She created masks made of paper towels and rubber bands.

In that moment, everything shifted. We became a group of people who believed in abundance and not scarcity. Each day someone showed up with a new product that was hard to get or shared a story about how to find something. We shared everything: toilet paper, meat, CPE, homemade masks, homemade hand sanitizer. There was so much sharing that there was an amusing moment when someone asked for eggs and three people were competing to give them to her. Anything that someone needed became an opportunity to give. And nothing feels better than sharing when you have a view of abundance.

The scarcity was merely a projection. Our courageous health care workers, supply chain workers and manufacturing were working through the pandemic. In fact, there was no scarcity of toilet paper, merely a fear of it. And that scarcity view caused people to hoard, preventing neighbors from getting supplies that they needed.

The same applies to psychology. Many of our fears and anxieties comes from a scarcity viewpoint. (There is no job, there is chance for love or friendship, I don’t have enough money.). Switching to an abundance perspective allows many of these fears, anxieties and worries to go away. (There are plenty of good jobs, there are plenty of nice people, I can live within my means.) It is just that simple.

Now, of course, having an abundance viewpoint does not stave off tragedy, or address mental illness, or hunger, or many world problems.

But we live in an abundant country. Americans are the most generous people on earth. And if we can look at our worries and our anxieties from a perspective of abundance, many will fade away. So ask yourself, is my worry, fear or anxiety based on a scarcity view? What would happen if I changed to an “abundance” view?

That is the advice that a friend asked me to share with you.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

My new furniture in Key West arrived last week.

It is not a lot: a sofa, a loveseat, and a coffee table. But it is more than that.

I have finally planted roots.

I have spent the last 5 years wondering what to do about this house. Did I want to live in it? Were two homes too much to manage?

It began simply, my husband decided that he wanted to retire in Key West and New Jersey while I continued working. His first retirement project was to renovate a home just for us. We purchased a modest house in a good location and planned to use my salary to pay for the renovation.

We closed on the house in July of 2014. My father died in October, and we decided to spend a long weekend in Key West to recover and commence our new life.

The next day I found myself racing to a Miami hospital where my husband had been medivacked after severely injuring himself in a fall. After a month-long stay in a hospital with bi-weekly surgeries, we decided he would recover in Key West and I would retire, also, to care for him.

In 2014, the home was an empty shell. While caring for him in the Miami hospital, I went online and purchased everything that we needed to get started: beds, linens, towels, dressers, silverware, kitchen equipment, pots, pans, bowls, food, and outdoor furniture, which was temporarily placed in the living room.

Over 50 boxes awaited us when we arrived back from the hospital that evening. I opened boxes until I could find enough sheets, towels, dishes, kitchen equipment, and basics.

By 3 AM, I was exhausted and took a long-awaited shower only to feel large cockroach like palmetto bugs climbing up my legs (it turns out they live in shower drains of vacant houses).  I screamed; convinced that I was in a horror movie. Then, my husband inadvertently locked the other bathroom door and we now had no bathroom, palmetto bugs the size of eggs scurrying around in the dark…and no bug spray.

When the hardware store opened, I purchased the basics. But we soon discovered that there was more in store for us. Two adjacent houses were undergoing major renovations and we spent the winter listening to the sounds of buzz saws, ceramic saws, cement trucks, drills, and jack hammers, while construction dust poured into our windows.

The dogs were still in NJ, our clothes were in NJ, our car was in NJ, our bills were in NJ. I flew to NJ while Jeff’s sister cared for him and my brother-in-law and I drove a packed car down to Key West. During that desperate winter, my husband suffered repeated relapses, staph infections, more hospital stays while secretly being consumed by an undiagnosed, rapacious cancer. He died in August 2015.

I returned that fall, a new widow, dazed and vulnerable. Now three homes were undergoing complete renovations.  My corner house was ground zero for contractor parking; and they abused it. One contractor, in particular, gleefully discovered that I was a new widow, telling another sympathetic contractor that I would be too weak to challenge him.  He anonymously reported my Christmas decorations and planters to code enforcement. At night he would move them close to the street and call code enforcement. Embarrassed, but unable to do anything, code enforcement asked me to call the police, who also sympathized, but could not help.  I finally located the new owners who stopped him.

I spent the next several years in a state of grief, depression, and fear, but most of all confusion.  What was I going to do with this house in Key West?

The first year I spread his ashes in the ocean near our home…his home.

Each year, like a migratory bird on autopilot, I returned to this home of sorrow. To me, the house was Jeff’s tomb.  A memorial to broken dreams.

And each year, there was another house under construction. In the five years that I have lived here, there has always been construction and my house is their parking garage. My dogs bark at them incessantly.

Yet through it all, there has been grace. My family has been my rock.  Friends have been supportive. My daughter has made extended visits. A friend gave me sage, minerals, and crystals to rid the home of sad energy. An outdoor lighting company heard my story and installed outdoor lighting at cost, creating an outdoor paradise.  I met new friends at the dog park.

Last year, I decided that I would no longer be a victim of the contractors. I resolved to take charge and build a life that I never saw coming.  I realized that I didn’t need a grand home and that my modest dwelling fit my new life.

And that is how we recover from grief and struggles; no Disney moments, just a refusal to quit, a determination to keep getting up each time we fall.

So last week my outdoor furniture was finally moved outdoors and I have new living room furniture to go with my new life.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

History has a way of putting things in perspective. I wonder what history will say about the past four years.

Presidential reputations change through the lens of history. President Wilson’s is an example of a President whose reputation has changed a lot as values have evolved.

During his term, President Woodrow Wilson was hailed as one of the best presidents ever. He was viewed as an intellectual, a global thinker, a progressive reformer, and the premier statesman of his time. An idealist, Wilson pursued a progressive agenda, lowering tariffs, creating the Federal Reserve System, championing antitrust legislation, establishing an income tax, improving protections for workers, and establishing the Federal Trade Commission. Wilson believed that federal government should regulate the economy, expose corruption, and improve society. He led us into World War I, creating a global image of the United States as a beacon of democracy. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

But in the lens of the values of our time, he comes off as arrogant, compassionless, and moralistic; an intellectual whose lofty ideas masked his lack of concern for the people that he governed.

The most egregious actions of his presidency were his treatment of African Americans. He allowed his white supremacist Cabinet secretaries to implement racial segregation and discrimination within their departments. During Wilson’s presidency, the Treasury, the Post Office, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Navy, the Interior, the Marine Hospital, the War Department, and the Government Printing Office became segregated. Black supervisors were dismissed, cut off from promotions, and segregation became the pretext to adopt whites-only employment policies. Segregation persisted in the civil service over the next several decades. A Southerner, Wilson accepted segregation as part of a policy to “promote racial progress…by shocking the social system as little as possible.”

Black American leaders were not fooled. When W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter protested re-segregating Federal office buildings, Wilson replied:

“Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.”

Wilson enabled Jim Crow laws to be instituted in Washington DC.

During Wilson’s presidency, D. W. Griffith’s film, The Birth of a Nation (1915) was the first motion picture to be screened in the White House. The film portrayed blacks as dangerous and ignorant and glorified the Ku Klux Klan as the Savior of the white population. His first Supreme Court appointee (his Attorney General, James McReynolds) famously turned his chair around to face the wall when African American attorneys addressed the court.

Wilson was equally insensitive to women’s rights. While he is credited with supporting the 19^th amendment, that only occurred after years of ignoring and imprisoning Suffragette protestors. Privately, he was concerned that rights for women would result in men not getting their meals, children not being cared for. Publicly, he indicated that it wasn’t time yet for women (his exact rationale for his treatment of Black Americans). He had peaceful Suffragette protestors arrested, force-fed, and given extended prison terms. Finally, women’s activities in the war effort and his concern that America would not be viewed as a leader of democracy allowed him to change his position. Even so, to appease Southern opposition, when he endorsed a national right to vote, he still argued that it was a state matter.

Wilson ran on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” but German aggression and his vision of a global role for America, caused him to support entry into the war.  To explain the purpose of the war, Wilson issued his Fourteen Points, which laid out a vision of a world where all nations demonstrated mutual cooperation and a League of Nations peacefully resolved all international disputes.

But he believed that once he had declared war, the American people needed to support it. He launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to instill hatred of both the Germans and those who did not support the war. To Wilson, disloyal individuals had “sacrificed their right to civil liberties” such as free speech and expression. He and Congress passed two unconstitutional laws, the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, which criminalized any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government or military. These laws, now perceived as the most egregious violation of the 1^st Amendment, resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of 2,000 Americans.

Regrettably, the Supreme Court upheld the Acts as constitutional limits on free speech in a time of war. The Sedition Act was repealed in 1920. But a portion of the Espionage act survives today and, Attorney General William P. Barr considered charging BLM protestors with sedition.

Some historians argue that the US entry into WWI caused WWII. Wilson’s inability to control the Allies resulted in vindictive surrender terms which required the German government to inflate its currency creating a runaway inflation that wiped out Germany’s middle class from which Hitler recruited his Nazis.

Further, Wilson’s refusal to compromise doomed the League of Nations. The 25th amendment was passed after his leadership was continued despite his stroke.

His fatal flaw was arrogance.

Compare him to Lincoln whose stature has soared over time. Lincoln cared deeply for humanity. He demonstrated great empathy and a willingness to be wrong, to listen to opposing viewpoints. Despite an initial unwillingness to address slavery, he eventually came to understand the need to end it. When the South surrendered, he was quick to forbid retribution. Wilson had an idealist vision, Lincoln cared for humanity, warts, and all.

And I believe that is the lesson that we can take from these two Presidents…a great President leads his people, forging their humanity with his own. A great President is humble and willing to listen to other viewpoints. He accepts his limitations and corrects his mistakes. Most importantly, a great President can forgive and look forward. Biden recognized Lincoln’s words were as true then as they are now.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

As many of you know, I am an experienced dog person. I am not a professional trainer, but by fostering and rehabilitating over 200 dogs, I have learned a lot about the human/dog relationship. Most of my learning has come through trial and error, but sometimes I get help along the way.

My first rescue was a 2-year-old, 70-pound, black German Shepherd named Abby. The rescue organization told me that she was a product of a divorce, meaning that she had no issues; but merely was in the wrong family at the wrong time. Over the next several years, my husband and I became convinced that she was the cause of the divorce.

Abby was a sweet, but difficult dog. She was anxious, paced constantly, barked, and whined incessantly.  When I was away, she would bark nonstop, even though my daughter and her nanny were home.  Most nights, she woke us up over the slightest sound, often her stress would result in stomach issues and she was a frequent visitor to the vet.

Each time the vet asked me how she was, I would smile and say what a great dog she was…but on her 5^th birthday, I broke down and cried.  I confessed about our struggles with her.  I had convinced myself that I was too busy to make this dog happy; I was a working mom, with a big job, a husband, a large house, and volunteer activities.

The vet smiled.

“I think that I know what the problem is. Your dog is frustrated because she can’t do what she was bred to do,” she went on.  “Your German Shepherd was bred to protect and herd, and she has nothing to do.”

“Many of the behavior problems that I see are due to a frustrated dog not doing what it was bred to do,” she continued.  “Never get a dog with a purpose.”

Then she suggested that I get another dog.

I looked at her as if she were wearing a spacesuit. “Are you kidding, I am struggling with Abby, why would I get another dog?”

“She needs something to do, she needs someone to care for, to herd, to protect.”

In desperation, I took her advice and bought a sweet little cockapoo puppy named Sophie that even looked like a miniature sheep (since then I only rescue, but I was desperate).  Everything changed.

Abby spent her days herding little Sophie, gently correcting, and protecting her.  Abby would subtly lie between a visitor and Sophie. Once I understood Abby’s language, I would tell Abby that it was okay, and she would allow people to pet Sophie. Abby became relaxed, happy, confident.

It worked so well, that I rescued another cockapoo. Abby spent her days using her herding instincts, cutting them (a herder’s term for separating them), grouping them, leading them.  The puppies loved it…they had a big sister that they could jump and play on; and Abby could finally fulfill her purpose.

Since then, I adopt dogs that have no purpose. The Cockapoos, Maltese’s, poodle mixes, Schnoodles, Shih Tzus that I have adopted had only one purpose. To love and be loved…that is something that I can do.

For potential dog owners, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get a specific breed. But think about the original purpose of that breed and make sure that you can fulfill it. A border collie needs to run and herd.  Smarter species (e.g., poodles, Havanese) need to exercise their brains (e.g., learning tricks). Retrievers need to retrieve, but it can be a tennis ball.  If you are adopting a mixed breed, research all its likely breed instincts.  And if you have a dog that is struggling, see if it is able to fulfill its purpose.

Dogs are lucky, they have one purpose their lives. But with us humans, it is a different story.

Our purposes change with circumstances and age. Since my unexpected retirement I have struggled finding my purpose. Before retirement, I had built-in purposes: get an education, work hard, raise my family, work on our marriage, etc.  But now, it is more complicated.  Some retirees have this figured out: some have hobbies that they deferred, some have looked into spirituality, others learn and do new things, others give back.

Dogs are lucky, their purpose is bred into them.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Every morning I go to the dog park.  It is the highlight of my dogs’ day.  Their eyes follow me all morning, looking for that step toward the leashes…it must be something about the way that I walk, but they start to get excited even before I get there.  An excited flurry of circles and barks ensues while I try to put on the leashes and grab the doggie bags…but we eventually get to the dog park, where they spend the entire hour sitting in a lap or under my chair.

It’s always the anticipation, isn’t it?

This year, a new dog visitor arrived, a shy male chihuahua about 4 months old. Very fearful, he hid under his owners’ chairs.  Most people’s instinct is to cuddle the animal to reassure him, but these were experienced dog owners who knew better.  So, they read their newspapers while he cowered under a chair.  And there he sat for a couple of weeks.

They gave him an occasional pet, but otherwise ignored him.  He slowly began to venture from his spot, sniffing a dog and then running back.  Each day he ventured out a little more. Sometimes an older dog would snap at him, but the owners knew not to intervene. Their puppy gradually learned to speak “dog” and understood who wanted to play and who did not.  Fast forward two months and this little guy now greets every dog and person who enters with his waggy tail and excited bark.  He runs around the park letting people pet him and playing with other dogs.

He owns this park.

It reminds me of a similar experience that I had with my daughter.  She had just graduated from college and landed a job in Philadelphia.  She got an apartment with a friend who was going to graduate school at Penn. But it didn’t work out, her friend finished the master’s program early and left my daughter friendless in a strange city carrying the rent.

While our daughter struggled, my husband and I had challenges of our own.  He had been in a serious accident while we were spending a long weekend in Key West and was medevaced to a Miami Hospital where he endured 8 surgeries over a month long stay.  After leaving the hospital, he needed round the clock care requiring us to stay in Key West, 1500 miles away from our struggling daughter.  Then, through no fault of her own, she lost her job.  There she was, out of work, in a strange city with another 6 months on a lease that she couldn’t afford and we couldn’t come to her aid when she needed us the most.  She hesitantly negotiated herself out of the lease and a friend of ours helped her move and gave her a place to stay in New Jersey while she applied for jobs in New York City.

It didn’t go well.  The loss of her first job was a stain on her resume and it took over 6 months and almost 50 job interviews before she finally landed a job.  After securing an apartment, her NYC roommate pulled out at the last minute.  So she had to share her apartment with a stranger.  It was a very difficult year, as her father’s injury hid a grave illness and he died 8 months later.  It was a lot for her to deal with.

Fast forward 6 years, she has become enormously successful.  She confidently leads a global team and is the youngest Senior Director in the company’s history.  After a couple of years, she found a compatible roommate and they have shared an apartment for 3 years.  After the COVID 19 crisis is over, she will be moving to London to lead her team. She is a confident, empathetic, and kind person.

Sometimes we help the most when we don’t help at all.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Black history month is a great way for us to learn about those who have championed the cause against racial injustice in white history obscurity. When I was in school, I was taught nothing about Black history…with the exception that slaves loved being in bondage and happily sang songs as portrayed in Gone with the Wind.

Ugh, how embarrassing.

So I recognize that it is incumbent upon me to learn a more inclusive history.  Each year, I pick someone from Black History and Women’s History to research.

This year I cheated, I chose Ida B Wells, both an important voice for African Americans and a champion of women’s voting rights.

Born into slavery in 1862, she became one of the most renown journalists of her time (very unusual for a person of color) documenting lynching with unabashed bravery.

Always an activist (she was a cofounder of the NAACP), she gained notoriety when she took on the railroads in 1884 for requiring her to give up her (paid) first class seat to move to a less desirable (smoking) car.  When she refused, she was thrown off the train and began her journalism career documenting her treatment and her subsequent lawsuit against the railroad (she lost…in part thanks to a prior Supreme Court ruling).

She began her career as a teacher in Memphis. But after learning about the lynching of two friends, she began chronicling lynching. By shining a light on this barbaric practice, American Northerners and the world could no longer turn a blind eye to Southern depravity.  Not surprisingly, a White mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses.

Prior to her investigative pamphlets, Southern Horrors and The Red Record, Wells documented lynching under an assumed name for the Washington Star.  When her writing was brought to light, she was fired by the Memphis School board and, in fear of her life after the mob destruction, moved to Chicago.

Oh by the way, since she was woman, she did all of this while raising six children.

Not content to just report lynchings, she also analyzed why they occurred. Despite Southern justification, she uncovered that Black economic progress, bi-racial affairs, fear of a Black uprising, and refusal of courageous Black men to accept Jim Crow were the real reasons. She concluded that 25% claimed to be about the “rape of white women.” She shined on bright light on this cruel injustice for the world to witness.

An educator at heart, she also promoted causes that gave all races and nationalities access to libraries and knowledge; understanding that education was power.

She was an outspoken Suffragette.  She educated her African American colleagues on the importance of women’s votes to improve the condition of Black Americans and organized a multi-racial group for suffrage. Her group is considered primarily responsible for the election of the first Black alderman in Chicago (Oscar De Priest).

Her organization traveled to DC to attend the Women’s Suffrage parade in 1913.  However, Southern White Suffragettes threatened a boycott if African American Suffragettes participated.  In an attempt to appease the Southern Suffragettes, organizers asked Ida B. Wells and other Black Suffragettes not to march, knowing that Woodrow Wilson, among others, was no friend to African Americans.

But Ida B Wells was an indomitable force, so, after an initial skirmish (where anti-Suffrage men became violent); she mysteriously ended up at the front of her delegation and marched in the parade.

Ida B Wells was a force against injustice that would never be quashed.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Gardening has been my passion since childhood, it has fed me through life’s joys and tragedies.  It nurtured my marriage, kept me alive when I no longer wanted to be part of this world, and nudged me to return.

Raised on a Caroline County farm, I found being outside in the dirt was a place where I could relax and focus on the task at hand.  I found solace working the soil, kneading the wet earth, or watching the dry dust sift through my fingers.  Tasks had a beginning and an end.  At the end I could look back at my work…a row of seeds planted, or seedlings transplanted…waiting for them to grow.  I instinctively learned about my silent pact with the earth…I will put it here and you will nourish it. And after we have tended it together, we will have something that will feed us either substantively or visually; and then we will start the cycle all over again.

I brought a love of that communion wherever I went.  In every yard, I built a garden, not always a successful one; but one that began with promise and imagination.  I would tend it, remove the unwanted weeds, water it during droughts, there was always something to do.  It was partnership, of interconnected roles; like enduring partnerships, sometimes we fought, sometimes we failed, sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we amazed, but always be together. I have learned that nature is not a one-way street, but a relationship that is always teaching.

I have been an organic gardener from the beginning, not because I was necessarily “woke,” but I recognized I was a temporary steward, and I did not have the right to leave a permanent blemish on the environment. Also, I figured that as a rather inept gardener, I could kill plants without the aid of chemicals.

A garden is about love. A love for beauty, a love for the outdoor miracle our planet provides, a love for the sounds, a love of being enveloped in soft green plants and rustling bushes and trees, a love of sharing the moments that a garden gives.

So fellow gardeners, it is time.  Time to get out those magazines, the books, the seed catalogs, get ideas and local plants from friends and garden clubs.  Time to plan, this is going to be the year!

Time to hope for rain at just the right time, a cool, wet spring, a gradual mild, summer with weekly thunderstorms; a mild autumn where our plants gracefully return to the earth; and a winter where our perennials, trees, and bushes can find safe harbor.

Everything is possible at this moment!

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Vice President-Elect Harris wore a white pantsuit on the night that she and Joe Biden celebrated their victory.  She wore it to recognize the 72 years that Suffragettes worked, organized, lobbied, were incarcerated, marched, demonstrated, and even participated in hunger strikes so that women could vote.  Many Suffragettes did not live long enough to vote.  To honor Susan B. Anthony, on every election day, voters paste their “I Voted” stickers on her gravestone in Rochester NY.

As I cheered Vice President Elect Harris’s victory, I wondered how many other amendments had paved the way for that night.

With the exception of President Obama, all presidents and vice presidents met the framers’ original intentions of what a leader should be…white and male (and often, privileged).

Kamala Harris’s victory reminded me of my favorite quote by Sir Isaac Newton.

“If I can see far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Many amendments to the Constitution were necessary for her to be up on that podium. The most important amendments were the 15th and the 19th.  The 15th gave Black men the right to vote (or more specifically, prohibited states from refusing voting rights based on race) and the 19th amendment gave female US citizens the right to vote.

The journey to expand voting rights began shortly after the Constitution was ratified.  The Abolitionist movement officially began in 1830.  It would take a Civil War to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.  The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment gave citizenship to all born in the United States, and the 15th amendment prohibited states from denying voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Women’s advocates, who worked tirelessly to end slavery, expected to be rewarded with a voting rights amendment that included gender as well.  However, Abolitionists were afraid that adding gender was too controversial and they asked Suffragettes to “stand down.”  Frederick Douglass, a staunch supporter of women’s voting rights, finally capitulated when he recognized that adding sex could prevent the passage of the 15th amendment.  The Suffragettes were angry and bitterly disappointed.

As disheartened as they were, even they would not have imagined that women would have to wait another 53 years before the 19th amendment granting them the right to vote would be passed. In fact, by the time the 19^th amendment was ratified, 20 states allowed women to vote.

Biden/Harris won 57% of the female vote.

There were other amendments that aided Biden/Harris in the 2020 Presidential election.  The 24th amendment abolished poll tax, allowing Black Americans to vote freely.

Biden/Harris won 87% of the Black American vote.

The 26^th amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote.

Two thirds of those under 24 voted for Biden/Harris.

The 23^rd amendment gave the District of Columbia Electoral College representation.

92% of DC’s residents voted for Biden/Harris, giving them 3 Electoral College votes.

The road to Vice President Kamala Harris’s election began long before her immigrant parents were born.  Thousands of people dedicated their lives, especially in the Abolition and Suffrage Movements, to extend voting rights.

But you know who else needs to be celebrated?  The white male voters. Their willingness to share their privileges and power to those not represented created a broader, deeper, and richer America. These men recognized that a rising tide raises all boats. It can be argued that their foresight saved the Constitution in 2020. 61% of white men voted for Trump, I am convinced that those voters could not have envisioned a failed coup attempt to overturn the election and the Constitution.

When Kamala Harris strode onto the podium in her white pantsuit, she was saluting all those who worked tirelessly to give her this opportunity and, equally important, those, like her husband, who were willing to share it.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.