"May you live in interesting times" 

Interesting times, indeed.  Frightening, dangerous, catastrophic times; unprecedented in our lifetimes!  What do we do when every person living on the planet is presented with something we've never had to deal with before? (Think of that...everywhere, everyone impacted in one way or another, no borders, no barriers) How do we respond, cope, adjust, fail or succeed?

There are many ways at many levels to answer that question.  There are the formal, necessary answers that governments and institutions arrive at; and there are the smaller individual actions and mindsets that we each choose.

Among my choices, I am choosing to return to writing this blog.  I started it a long time ago, when I was working as a media curriculum coordinator/technology strategist in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  I'm a very sporadic journalist, but at the moment I'm not going anywhere, so I'm going to give it another shot.

The blog title: "Information Woman" is meaningful to me.  Accessing information for my own enlightenment and entertainment and sharing what I found and learned has always been important; important enough to make it a career. 

In today's information environment, ethical, accurate and useful information sharing is endangered--false, inflammatory and politically divisive information sharing gets more than its fair share of airing and viewing and spreads its virulence.  It's hard to know what truth is.  In my small way, I'm going to try to make a difference.

I'll start with the saying that is my title.  I've often quoted that as an ancient Chinese curse.  Using it as such would seem highly appropriate in light of the Co-vid 19 virus coming from China and certainly creating "interesting times".  Unfortunately, it appears it's not an ancient Chinese curse at all, but has a much more recent origin, at least according to the Quote Investigator.  Garson O'Toole appears to be very credible and cites both sources and investigative processes. 

I'll express my own opinions as well, but state them as such.  You can agree or disagree.  Today is day 19 of the declared pandemic.  There is much to ponder.