Monthly Archives: January 2026

Posted in opinion

SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING MAY KILL ME

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By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

Procrastination is a wonderful thing. Living in suspended reality allows you to blissfully go about your daily life in joyful ignorance. But eventually that “long arm of the law”, reality, catches up. For me, reality hit home last week. I have been giving some thought to moving within the next two to three years. My house and yard have become more burdensome, the people moving into my community are young enough to be my children, and frankly, I know I need some new horizons. But first, my current horizon needs some clearing out. Mind you, I am the furthest thing from a hoarder you could find. I like clear countertops and alphabetized spice racks. My filing cabinet is color-coded and sorted by subject . Some might call me obsessive/compulsive. I prefer to think of myself as extremely organized. But still, I’ve lived in this house for almost 26 years and things do accumulate. So, my New Year’s resolution was to pretend I’m moving next month and then go through all of my belongings and discard accordingly. Sounded easy. It’s not.

Gosh, we were young!

To gain some inspiration I re-read The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, by Margareta Magnusson. In essence, she encourages people to clean out their crap before their kids have to after they die. She extols the virtues of embracing minimalism and doing it with humor along the way. Okay, I can get on board with the minimalism, but I found the process to be anything but humorous. Except for the photos of my brothers and me from over 50 years ago. That brought a good chuckle. Especially my outfit which, in retrospect, resembles a cheap shag rug. Anyway, I started in my craft closet, which may sound like a weak place to start but I assure you it was the most over-crowded, full-of-junk, space in the house. I was motivated to start there because it hadn’t been painted in 26 years. Through five major remodels I always managed to avoid clearing out that closet because it was too daunting. It is a rather large walk-in space where I threw things in with abandon. I used to work in a yarn store where I got yarn at wholesale prices. I took advantage of that. Maybe too much advantage. Although the yarn and notions were all in bins that were sorted and labeled, it was still overwhelming. Add to that I had a huge table for my sewing machine, stacks of fabric, and a long shelf of crafting books. I kept a big box of photos and other memorabilia in there, including my second runner-up trophy from the 1968 Junior Miss Contest. And, oh yeah, it also contained all of the exercise equipment that I was certain I would use every day. Somehow that never worked out. And neither did I. In any event, I finally scheduled painters to come this week to spruce it up.

But last Friday morning my contractor called and said the painters had a cancellation and would be coming to my house in two hours. I know better than to turn down a contractor when they’re available, so I rushed into my craft closet and began to work. I harkened back on my lessons from Swedish Death Cleaning. I had to get very realistic about what I would keep and what I would donate. After all, when I do move it will be into a much smaller space, so I resolved to start downsizing now. I put more than half of my crafting materials into the “donate” pile. I did not let myself get stuck in sentiment – yarn that I bought on my magical trip to Ireland eight years ago will now be magical in someone else’s stash. My trophy from 1968 is finally where it belongs – in the trash pile. I took pictures of pictures and then discarded the originals. With steely resolve, I got it all cleared out and sorted before the painters arrived.

It’s amazing what you can get done with a figurative gun at your head. I think Margareta exaggerated the “joyful” part of this, but I will say it feels good to have this major task behind me. I’m thinking that I need to schedule some sort of work to be done in my office and the kitchen. But first I have to recuperate – this death cleaning may be the death of me…or my back.

Posted in opinion • politics

Finding Unity in Everyday Acts of Kindness

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by Bob Sparrow

I think like many of you, I have grown increasingly tired of all the discussing political rhetoric from both sides, spewing from every media outlet imaginable. Through effort, I have found myself paying less attention to the loud, often crude clips we all get exposed to daily. Through more effort, I am purposely paying more attention to quiet, personal conversations. The ones that happen in grocery store aisles, in neighborhoods and over coffee. They don’t make headlines, but I believe they feel more representative of the country we live in than the noise from our politicians that dominates the airwaves.

There’s no denying that America feels divided right now, thank mostly to our politicians and the media that supports them. There just doesn’t seem to be accurate, balanced reporting of any event, it’s always seems to be slanted based on what media you’re listening to or watching. Even in personal conversations, people must choose their words carefully or sometimes avoid certain topics altogether, based on their audience. We must be a good judge of the audience before we mention anything that could be interpreted as politically slanted. But alongside that tension, there’s something else happening, something steadier and far less dramatic, and certainly far less publizied. People are still showing up for their lives. They’re going to work, caring for family members, coaching kids’ teams, volunteering, creating things, fixing things, and trying, in their own imperfect way, to do right by the people around them. Unfortunately, the people who have the spotlight on them are the politicians, and I sincerely believe that something happens to a person when they get into politics. It seems that it’s not about what’s good for the people they represent, it’s about what’s good for their political party and not cooperating with the other side of the aisle, but taking every opportunity to defeat and demean them.

Conversations over coffee

In the previous year alone, I’ve personally seen neighbors help each other through tough times, strangers hold doors and conversations open a little longer than necessary, and small businesses adapt with creativity and grit that deserves more attention than it gets. These moments don’t erase disagreements, but they remind me that disagreement isn’t the whole story. It has never been.

One of the enduring strengths of this country is its capacity for everyday problem-solving. Americans have always been practical at heart. When something breaks, we patch it. When plans change, we improvise. When the road gets bumpy, we complain a little—and then keep going. That instinct seems alive and well, even now and needs to be used to ‘fix’ this divide.

There’s also a quiet generosity that persists beneath the surface. It shows up in donation jars, shared meals, patient teachers, exhausted healthcare workers, and people who check in on one another without expecting anything in return. These gestures may not feel grand, but collectively they form the connective tissue of the nation.

What gives me hope isn’t the idea that everyone will suddenly agree, or that complexity will magically disappear. Hope comes from watching common people navigate uncertainty with resilience and humor. It comes from the understanding that a country isn’t defined solely by its political arguments, but by how its people live between them.

Mixing Red & Blue makes a beautiful color . . . and country

After fifteen years of writing this weekly blog, I’ve learned that the most meaningful stories, which are mostly written by my sister, are rarely the loudest ones. They’re steady, human stories about persistence, kindness, curiosity, and simple desire to make tomorrow a little better than today.

America, for all its contradictions, is still full of people trying. And in times like these, that effort counts for more than we sometimes realize.

Posted in opinion

A Year of Diet, Socialization, Exercise and Pumpkin Pie

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By Suzanne Sparrow Watson

As my brother pointed out last week, this is the time of year when we are full of resolutions. We strive to eat better, drink less, lose ten pounds, limit social media, and be kinder to everyone. To be honest, I don’t think I can do all that. At this point in life, I have to make choices…and face reality. I’ve made the same resolution to lose the same ten pounds for the past thirty years. In 2026 I’m not even going to try. In fact, as I’ve watched countless friends whittle away to bare bones due to the “miracle” of GLP-1, I’ve consoled myself that those extra ten pounds will serve me well if I ever get sick. Basically, they serve as my cushioning in more ways than one. I have rounded third base, and though I hope it will be a while before I slide into home plate, I intend to do so clutching a big piece of chocolate cake.

I actually do eat a healthy diet except for the occasional sweet. Okay, maybe more like a daily sweet, but always in moderation. Except when I buy the pumpkin pie at Sprouts and consume the whole thing in four days. But pumpkin is very healthy for you, and it is seasonal, so I have to take advantage while I can. So… I have the eating part of things figured out. I also don’t drink much these days. I love the socialization that usually is entwined with it, but the waking up at 1 a.m. part? Not so much. I can’t have a one-year-old puppy and drink at the same time. I simply don’t have the energy.

Being kinder to people is an admirable trait – one that I strive to exhibit. I try to remember that you never know what people are going through so everyone deserves some grace. Except for the people who tailgate me in a 45 MPH zone, then zoom around me and give me the finger because I was only going 50 MPH. I don’t think that person deserves my kindness, but in 2026 I will try not to flip them off in return.

Social media usage has become a problem throughout our population in general, and for me specifically early in the morning because I find catching up on dog videos and recipes preferable to the news. I fix myself a big cup of coffee, turn on Good Morning Football or ESPN, and peruse Facebook and Instagram. So, you can imagine my annoyance when people take to social media platforms to “school” me on the latest political events. I get it from both sides, but one person in particular posts at least five times a day, alerting me to Trump’s every movement. I actually am insulted by these people – do they assume that I am so uncurious and ill-informed that BUT FOR THEM I would wallow in total ignorance? I worry about people who spend so much of their time thinking about what to post. The phrase, “get a life”, springs to mind. So, I will save some time spent on social media in 2026 because I plan to block them. Nothing gets between me and my dog videos.

I DO intend to exercise more. I recently finished the book, Outlive, by Dr. Peter Attia. He specializes in helping people have a long health span, vs a long life span. After all, what’s the use of living to be 100 if you have been confined to a bed for ten years? One of the staples of Dr. Attia’s program is to increase strength as you age. He acknowledges that it’s more difficult to build muscle mass after age 70, but not impossible. I have saved about 50 exercise reels on social media platforms. I even created a folder on each one and carefully filed each reel away for future reference. So far, my only exercise has been whatever energy is expended by my index finger to move to reel to my files. But today – TODAY! – I am starting with a trainer at the gym, who also read Outlive and we are going to set up a program to help me live healthily to 100. I’m good with that as long as I don’t have to give up my pumpkin pie.