Is America's melting pot in the throes of a meltdown? November 6, 2024 —Up at 6:30, earlier than usual for me. I needed to pick up where I left off with last night’s unsettling U.S. election coverage. Maybe I’d wake to some encouraging news. In the days leading up to Election Day, an … [Read more...] about A Vote Is a Kind of Prayer
On Hold: my corona diaries
The other day I got caught in the rain on my morning walk. More than a drizzle, less than a downpour. I don’t relish walking in the rain. I count on a 15-minute margin of error in timing my walks to the local weather forecast. Meteorology is only so precise. A neighbor passed … [Read more...] about On Hold: my corona diaries
Isn’t it Just Like February (redux)
Yo-Yo Ma once famously said that music happens between the notes--one way of explaining what I love about the mysteriousness of edges, cusps, those in-between places that demand our attention. A skim of ice on a sun-drenched lake. The shape of clouds against the sky. The month of … [Read more...] about Isn’t it Just Like February (redux)
The personal/the political
There's so much in Heidi Schreck’s wise, witty, profound play, What the Constitution Means to Me that resonates but an anecdote touching on an encounter with a young man during her college days struck a particular chord. They were saying good-night and the question of sex entered the picture. More … [Read more...] about The personal/the political
The long and the short of it
Don’t have to be a writer to know we belong to a storytelling species. Conversation is just a prelude, the entry point to an anecdote begging to be shared. I’m not prone to especially long-winded anecdotes, but even I can get carried away. “The long and the short of it,” I’ll say, reaching the … [Read more...] about The long and the short of it
The minor fall/the major lift
Ask a writer why she writes and she’s bound to say it has something to do with her love of the places reading has always taken her. Stories are what we live by. Great writers tell them in ways that move us with profound insights—not to mention unforgettable characters. Then there’s the music of … [Read more...] about The minor fall/the major lift
