A few days ago, I got an intriguing invitation from a young friend. Karen is the daughter of good friends of ours, and you could say we’ve known her since before she was born. We seldom know the children of friends in settings apart from their parents, which was true for Karen as well, with one exception. She was on a short study course in Costa Rica in her senior college year at the same time...
Recently, an odd-shaped package arrived in the mail. It wasn’t even from Amazon, and it was a lot more inviting than the assault of fund-raising letters that fill my mailbox these days. Pity the poor mail carriers. It turned out to be a framed copy of an extraordinary poem by a high school student who is working with a writer from a program called Writers in the Schools (WITS) in Houston. Much...
I hope everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and weathered the Midwestern snowstorm safely. The week was full of food. We mapped out the preparation, so each day involved tackling just one or two dishes. By Thursday morning there was nothing to do but put the turkey in the oven. If you haven’t learned this yet, the best approach to that part of the meal is to do nothing but turn up the heat to 425...
There’s an odd pattern to my sleep that I’m guessing others share. On some nights, I am awakened shortly after falling asleep by a troubling dream. I am not one of those people who is blessed with stunning recall of the night’s dreams, but I think those that occur during what I’m calling First Sleep are accessible because I wake up so close on the heels of having dreamed them. A few nights ago, I...
So many of us have been searching during the Trump years for ways to act on our opposition to his efforts to move the country toward authoritarianism. We’ve marched in the demonstrations and rallies that have grown larger each time we get out our signs and head downtown. We need to continue doing that. We’ve reached into our bank accounts to contribute to political candidates and organizations...