Less is more…especially in June, a dazzling and also tumultuous month that might as well be called “Jewel of a Jumble.” Shifting to a watery image, because it’s so hot today, I would also offer another name: “A Time to Keep Paddling, A Time to (Mostly) Refrain from Plunging.” At this everything-is-happening-at-once time of year, deciding what not to do a deep dive into is just as important as deciding how to keep swimming forward through all the … Read More
We didn’t need any reminding over the past week that so much going on in the world, and even in our own communities, is out of our control. It’s overwhelming, it’s frustrating, and for so many reasons the future seems uncertain. When it comes to the course of our own lives, we have more control, although still far from complete mastery. Life becomes a cloth of many colors, some of which we can take pride in, others not so much. … Read More
When it comes to hangers-on, we often have radically different feelings. They can be completely exasperating, or just as completely inspiring. At this time of year, they can also be just plain confusing. Have you ever had houseguests who — this isn’t easy to say– overstayed their welcome? Friends who didn’t see the signs that, with so much else changing, it was time to let go and move on? Contrarily, have you ever been impressed, even awed, by a kind of stick-to-it-iveness … Read More
Well, it’s about time I re-appeared here; after all, what’s a blog without an active blogger? The truth is, prompted by a query from an astute subscriber, we’ve been doing a little re-tooling. I say “we” because I have been in this operation, from its beginning three years ago, with the help of a fabulous web designer who happens also to be an alpaca farmer. Couldn’t do it without her. Anyway, noticing that subscribers get just the current post without … Read More
Over the course of the past Holy Week, my husband was preparing for services culminating with Easter today — the pinnacle of the Christian calendar. Meanwhile, I was, for the first time, teaching a unit on ancient India to high school juniors. In my mind’s eye, I saw temples with elaborate carvings and women in colorful saris as I made the daily drive up and down a fairly bland stretch of highway. It made for a kind of interesting mash-up … Read More
On any given day, would you describe yourself as more “purposing” or “repurposing”? Is one superior to the other, or do they roll about the same? Is there a kind of inevitability to shifting purposes, or do we have some say in the matter? Oh, and does it depend on whether you’re a person or a building? To get started on this contrast, I have to display the current image I have in my head when I hear the first … Read More
Following his first cross-country practice at his new school, my son had to report for an “imPACT” evaluation. The name comes from “Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing” and it’s now used widely in schools, apparently to see how our kids’ brains are doing. Gone are the days when only certain rough sports were considered the only culprits; it’s open season now for athletics in general. Apparently, the computerized Q and A session provides important “baseline” data—data we didn’t … Read More
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
It absolutely positively could NOT have been a coincidence that on the very day before I brought my son to the airport to travel to the other side of the world The New York Times ran a story about Voyager 1 exiting the solar system. What, I wondered, would that spacecraft’s mother be feeling? Imagining, first of all, that a not-exactly-darling contraption like this could in fact have a mother, I envisioned her in Houston (where else?) coping with the … Read More
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