Passion, Public Discourse, and Politics

Little League All-Stars.  Heard the one about the candidate who was caught burning a flag on a fire built of banned books, while making out with his seventeen-year-old boyfriend in the back seat of his wife’s car, parked at the hospital where his special-needs child was undergoing emergency treatment for cancer? Me either.Not yet.But I think […]


Bold Enough for Oranges

Clementines are Tasty. And Safe. Risk Averse  When I drove home from work the other night the woman in the car behind me committed an act of boldness as we made our way through the going-home traffic. She ate an orange. I watched in my rear-view mirror as she peeled it, balancing the orange against […]


The Reunion

My Brother, Cousin Marcia, Cousin Hugh. Ca. 1969. [Click here to read the beginning of this story. Click here to read its conclusion.]   Walking the Ruins We pull into the parking lot and panic overwhelms me. I glance at my cousin Hugh in the back seat and see, for the first time, what others […]


No Goats for Me!

Pansies and Stock. November, 2011. What Flowers Taught me of DisciplineFor many years, I’ve thought I’d enjoy keeping a few goats. We live in a place where we could keep goats. But I haven’t studied up on goat husbandry, haven’t thought about where to put a pen and a goat barn. The other day, I […]


No Goats for Me!

Pansies and Stock. November, 2011. What Flowers Taught me of DisciplineFor many years, I’ve thought I’d enjoy keeping a few goats. We live in a place where we could keep goats. But I haven’t studied up on goat husbandry, haven’t thought about where to put a pen and a goat barn. The other day, I […]