Three Friends, Three Books

This post will be a departure from my “this in contrast to that” theme. The heat and humidity have had a warping effect, and so I might as well bend my own rules. What I’m setting out to do here is offer up, for your consideration, a few recently published works of fiction — first novels — by writers I am honored to know. My peeps are out there on the field, so you could say that I’m taking up … Read More

Little Delights and Simple Pleasures

Life sure can wallop us, mercilessly, in a way that says, “Better find a way to deal with this pain, because you can’t wish it away.” Either we’re stinging from that kind of wallop right now, recovering from one we’ve already had, or cognizant that we will be walloped sometime in the future — we just don’t know when or how hard it will be. And yet, every morning brings possibilities for the discovery of new joys. Here in New … Read More

Not Exactly Dancing in the Dark

I haven’t seen one of them in a while, but didn’t there used to be bumper stickers that said something like, “I found The Way?” or maybe “Jesus Is The Way”? Well, about a week ago, in the dark, I was seriously looking for The Way, but not to Jesus — to home.  My husband helped me, reinforcing my appreciation of marriage as an institution. If home is sometimes described as the place “where they have to take you in” … Read More

Stick-to-itiveness, Rocky style

The closer the election gets, the more I love my dog. And once it’s over, I’ll love him even more. Recently my Rocky has gotten me thinking about a certain quality, one he demonstrates every time we’re out on the non-campaign trails (= daily). In humans, it’s just about always considered a good thing. In dogs, maybe not quite so much. What is it? Stick-to-it-iveness. By that I mean, in canine terms at least, something like “the compulsion to find … Read More

How Do You Make, How Do You Take Your Community?

Is there a sure-fire way to tell the real thing from an imitation?  And what allows an imitation to be acceptable or even preferable?  When it comes to fulfilling our natural desire for community, who is to say if one kind is more genuine or life-giving than another? Some months after advising me to lay off the salt, my doctor also told me to cut out sugar and all white foods—wait, I think cauliflower is allowed — as much as possible. … Read More

Time to Go

Years ago, my mother liked to tell the story about a teenage neighbor of ours who needed to give her handicapped mother quite a lot of help.  Once when her mother was learning to drive a specially equipped car, she instructed her daughter not to do anything for her, saying, “Pretend you’re not even here.”   A few minutes later, though, the mother got into difficulty and was really struggling.  From the back seat the daughter finally piped up with “So am … Read More