Janet's Blog

Conforming is easy--you just follow the crowd. Wear the newest fashions, cut your hair in the latest style, use the currently popular slang. If you can afford it, you can do it. If you're unsure about what to do, just check any school. The most conforming schools insist that kids wear uniforms: polo shirts in the prescribed colors, khaki or navy pants or, for girls, a coordinating navy or plaid skirt or jumper. But even schools with lax dress codes are full of students and teachers who conform by wearing the latest contemporary fashion. T-shirts and jeans remain the most popular clothing, with shorts, sweats, and even pajama pants in the running for the most comfortable school attire. For people who want to conform, smart phones are a must; flip phones are sadly out-of-date, and we shouldn't even mention corded house phones. Young kids whose parents give them talk-and-text-only phones are careful to keep that information to themselves as they struggle to fit in with their peers...

It was the first day the bridge was closed on the Scottsbluff/Gering Highway, and I told myself, as I climbed into my car, to remember to turn left at the stop sign. But, wouldn’t you know it, I turned right instead. And in the midst of my turning the wrong way, I started singing a line of music I had never heard before: “It’s gonna take some time to change my muddled mind.” I took that as a sign from God that it was time to write a new song. As I mulled that over, I realized that a lot of us are dealing with much harder changes than an annoying bridge closure.  I had to turn around and head towards this bridge instead,  one of only three others that crosses the North Platte River between Gering and Scottsbluff. Life has been difficult this year for many who have been dealing with accidents or injury, illness, retirement, grief, or one of numerous other unexpected struggles. It doesn't help that the world around us is evolving in ways we never thought possible, with drast...