Stop telling me I’m intuitive. Stop telling me I’m nurturing. Stop telling me I’m tireless. You don’t know that I’d do anything for my kids, that I’m selfless, patient, or affectionate. All you know is that I’m a mother and it’s Mother’s Day. That’s the one day every year that people feel perfectly entitled—even obligated—to… Continue reading Mother’s Day Retort
Category: Food for Thought
Dr. Flowers and “The Gays”
A spring awakening. A retired doctor—an acquaintance of my mother’s—graciously offered to let my son use his grand piano while we were vacationing in Virginia. So, one Sunday, Mom and I brought Jesse over to the good doctor’s country estate, and, with a Haydn sonata cascading indoors, I was left in the back yard to… Continue reading Dr. Flowers and “The Gays”
The Truth Spectrum
A couple of months ago, a satirical Internet post quoted the Pope as saying that the church no longer believes in a literal Hell. I bought it for about four seconds—enough to say, “What!?!” rather than “Yeah, right”—because there was something so lovely about the way it was expressed: “Hell is merely a metaphor for… Continue reading The Truth Spectrum
Search Limits
In honor of Valentine’s Day, a piece that I wrote nine years ago (!) for the Times Union. Enjoy, while I rest from the enormous effort of not editing my 34-year-old self. (OK, I couldn’t resist a few footnotes.) ♦ ♦ ♦ I just signed up with Match.com. I made up a screen name and created a profile… Continue reading Search Limits
How to Start Your Own Holiday
Can you remember (without looking or guessing) what you did for dinner on October 12? No? How about on Thanksgiving? That’s my twenty-word argument in favor of holidays. Without holidays, the past dissolves into a smooth and pleasant blur. With them, our feeble brains hold onto at least a few moments each year.[1] But what… Continue reading How to Start Your Own Holiday
Church
I went to church this weekend. Just not the normal kind. When I was a sight-seeing child in Europe, churches were the salvation of my tired little legs. After dutifully examining the statue/triptych/stained glass of art historical significance, and before moving on to the next entry in the Blue Guide, I was permitted a few… Continue reading Church
Have We Lost the Art of Bragging?
Oh, Internet. You have given us so much, and taken away so many things I can’t even remember because I don’t use the remembering part of my brain anymore. Vaguely I can recall an era when I had to leave my house to buy a book. When the news came in paper form. When I… Continue reading Have We Lost the Art of Bragging?
Things That Are Easier Than Writing
♦ Cleaning my desk ♦ Checking Facebook ♦ Ordering stuff ♦ Editing other people’s writing ♦ Signing up for Obamacare ♦ Giving writing advice . . . Marion Roach Smith, the master memoirist, teacher, and mentor, kindly invited me to contribute to Writing Lessons, her series of writing advice columns. Check out the post here and then… Continue reading Things That Are Easier Than Writing
The Perfect Biscuit
I have been learning to bake biscuits for years. And from the first, mediocre batch, those biscuits have made my children happy. They are not picky children, and they are not fools: biscuits are warm, salty, and full of fat, and you can even add butter before that first eager bite. What’s not to like?… Continue reading The Perfect Biscuit
A Thanksgiving Paradox
Two ways to enjoy this light Thanksgiving dish, which aired yesterday on WAMC’s The Roundtable: read it below or listen to it here. ♦ ♦ ♦ It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and I am in heaven. More specifically I am in the Food Lion in Harrisonburg, Virginia, examining a truly pathetic produce aisle. Seriously, you call these brussels… Continue reading A Thanksgiving Paradox