As if it happens every year, the season’s turning again. The whirring fans many of us had going to help us sleep at night have quieted, and we’re beginning to reach for — gasp — light jackets. We’ve had some rain, at least, and what a gift that has been. Over in the UK, too, the skies have opened up, not deterring the thousands of mourners who will brave most anything to pay tribute to their beloved Queen Elizabeth. Having … Read More
When you get an invitation of any kind, you need to decide whether to accept or to decline. Sometimes these decisions are easy — “Yipppee!” or “No way I’m going to that!” — and sometimes they’re not. Every summer stretching back maybe fifteen years, I get an envelope with the same woman’s handwriting and address in the upper left corner. She even managed to find me after our move to New Hampshire, nine years ago. Inside is a one-page invitation … Read More
Stereotypes, like bad rules, are meant to be flouted. Here are a few nice surprises in possible identities: A librarian who never says “Shhhh” and brings a touch of glamour wherever she strides. A teenager who hangs out regularly with friends except when he is birdwatching. A burly guy who drives a Big Rig and has read all the works of William Thackeray . And a bishop — he can be the person you need presiding in church and also … Read More
Camp on the computer? Come on, you gotta be kidding. The concept seems to defy the very definition of what this summer institution is all about. Without the playing outdoors, the eating in the dining hall, the jumping off the dock, the walking the paths together, the fireside singing, the sleeping in bunks— what are you left with? As you’ve probably read, many parents (mostly parents who are comfortably off) have opted out of paying for camp on the computer … Read More
Smokey Robinson, that is. One of his songs has been cruising (not, not that one) through my mind during this end-of-August, not quite end-of-summer. Outside, there’s abundance just about everywhere… And when we’re fully enjoying the abundance, we might look something like this, particularly if we’re female and happen to find ourselves in a field of lavender. But a close neighbor to abundance is often the quality of too-much-ness. Or here’s the dreary basement version of gotta-cut-back…. Abundance brings a … Read More
It’s a good thing it’s so beautiful, day after summer day, right here at home, because we don’t have much for travel plans. Blame it on the will-it-ever-end revising work; blame it on the dog and no dog sitter; don’t blame it on the kids. But really, it’s OK. I bet not absolutely everyone is gallivanting around, anyway. And besides, I already had an unusual trip to California just as summer was starting. It’s appropriate that this happened more than … Read More
Sometimes a merely middling writer knows when the time is right to defer to—get out of the way of — a Knock You Out Writer, the expert kind. That’s my plan for this blog. I’ll offer just a bit of preamble, context first. Here’s hoping you had a lovely 4th of July, free of heavy tanks rolling down your street. The weather around here sure has been magnificent, if on the hot side. This is when New England ponds and … Read More
Sometimes choices are crystal clear; just as often, though, they’re not, and you just take the plunge. It’s a good time of year to use that word, because in midsummer, leaps into even murky bodies of water are rarely regretted. When the optometrist slides those different lenses into the machine and asks you, “Is this one better, or this?” usually it’s easy to say. And even a pleasure, because you anticipate that your choice will result in better … Read More
During this month of graduating seniors, burgeoning plants, and creatures newly born, are you also coming into your own? Are you just the same self you were last year at this time, or do you notice some small but significant differences in your inner landscape? It’s a personal question, I know, and you don’t really have to answer. But I can’t emerge from a year in a Memoir Incubator without asking it, at least of myself. And then, … Read More
With the floods in Houston at Biblical proportions, it feels almost flagrantly disrespectful to go on enjoying the glorious weather we have had at this end of August in New England. But we are watching and listening and, as this evening’s news reports from Boston show, finding ways to help from a distance. May the patience of people waiting to be rescued be rewarded with their safe transitions to places providing comfort. And may Louisiana be spared a repeat of … Read More