I don’t often re-run posts, but given the uptick of hate crimes against refugees, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, it felt important to reprint this post from September of 2015. When I was in college, I befriended a girl whose family members were refugees from Laos. She went by the name of Jenny because her...
Tag: TeresaFunke
Give Us Some Old-Time Suspense and Romance
The other day, my grown children and I were watching a 1939 Bob Hope movie, The Cat and The Canary, with my aunt. In it, the cast of characters is trapped in a creepy house with a killer. You know, it’s the type of movie where the secret passageway creaks open and a hand slides...
Did Bob Dylan Deserve the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Someone recently asked what I thought about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. Opinions among writers on the internet is certainly divided. Some feel there are plenty of accolades and awards for songwriters, and that Dylan has achieved more than his fair share of fame and fortune from the music industry, and that...
Should Artists Ever Get Political?
You know how sometimes a Hollywood actor speaks out about a cause, and the critics shout him down? “She gets paid to act,” people say, “not spout off about her opinions.” There’s a double standard when it comes to artists and politics. The message we receive is that we are “lucky” the public allows us...
You Know What’s Really Good for You?
We are bombarded daily with tips for how to live longer, healthier lives. How to treat our bodies better, bolster our minds, and nourish our souls. We’re supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, get eight hours of sleep per night, eat our greens, meditate, take time for ourselves. Blah, blah, blah. I’ll...
Don’t Waste Your Luck
I had a bit of financial luck recently, which has given me the ability to pull back on some of my paid work for a while and focus on my writing again. While I’m wildly excited by that prospect, it’s harder to do than it sounds. For most artist-entrepreneurs, there is no such thing as...
Does the Universe Take Our Ideas?
I was having lunch with a friend the other day, and she said she’d heard that the universe sometimes gifts us with ideas, and if we don’t act on them, it pulls the idea and gives it to someone else. I startled when she shared this. How many times have I thought of something, told...
Spontaneity vs Planning
I was sitting in a focus group the other night, and the facilitator threw out an icebreaker question: “What do you miss most about being a kid?” I said, “I miss spontaneity. You know, deciding you were in the mood for tag and then knocking on doors until you found someone who could come out...
Inspiration From Artist to Artist
If you know me, you know that part of what excites me as a creative is figuring out ways to bring my art to diverse audiences. Why? I’m a writer, after all, so why not just focus on the written word? As individuals, we like to interact with art in different ways on any given...
Be the Change
Recently, for the first time in my life, I’ve been standing on street corners soliciting signatures for a petition. At first, it was intimidating to approach total strangers, but I reminded myself that the initiative I was hoping to see on the ballot was important, and I trusted that other people would see that too....