Dr. King noted, “We are made by history.” Who we are is a product of everyone and everything that has come before. The genetic material in our cells is the unimaginably complex consummation of a trillion trillion connections. Contemporary society,…
There are different kinds of scary. Halloween scary is fun. It can be spooky, sexy, and sweet all at the same time. Halloween scary is weirdly life-affirming, even as it evokes death and darkness. It’s an invitation for us to…
My usual approach can be kind of hard. Not only hard as in difficult — though certainly that, too. But also hard as in a fierce ability to take a hard look at things when necessary, to have hard conversations…
It’s been quite a week. We expected it to be emotional, everyone gathering from around the country to honor the life of our friend, Beth, who left unexpectedly and too soon, two weeks ago. We knew we’d be dealing with…
Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.)- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself I do like it when things appear fairly straight-forward. Knowing who I am, where I stand, solid in my position relative…
A few months ago Travis and I binge-watched several seasons of Cheers, the 1980s NBC sitcom. It’s a great ensemble and the show is still really funny 40 years later. One of the side effects of watching it, however, was…
We humans have evolved to recognize patterns. We’re really good at it. So good, in fact, that we see pictures and create significance even out of nebulous shapes and apparent randomness. We perceive meaningful images in clouds and land forms,…
For our cats, every night includes THE MOST IMPORTANT five minutes in the history of the universe. They get dinner just before Travis and I go to bed, and — oh my god — it is a time of such…
Fiasco (noun): A thing that is a complete disaster, especially in a ludicrous or humiliating way. Fiasco (noun): A bottle or flask. Especially a bulbous, long-necked, straw-covered bottle for wine. I worry — probably more than is reasonable and definitely…
Sometimes I get into these discomforting little eddies of self-doubt. Rarely do I remain stuck there for too long, but whirling around in it I still get pretty dizzy. Everything seems like too much or not enough. Like I’m too…