In memoriam for the doctor who walked with the poor. Paul Farmer died this week and deserves a public eulogy in many spaces. He was a hero in global healthcare and we need to hold up our heroes. This week … Read More
I tossed an entire drawer full of pantyhose. I don’t know when that red-letter day was — This Is The Last Day I Wear Pantyhose — but it was some time four years ago when I still went to an … Read More
Smell evokes a time and place. In my childhood church, there was a pew known as Widow’s Row. It was the third pew from the front, right-hand side, and you sat there only by invitation. The row reeked of cologne, … Read More
No Time to Spare is a collection of her blogs I laughed out loud while reading Ursula Le Guin’s No Time to Spare (2017), her last book collected from her blogs. She started blogging in her 80’s, inspired by another mature writer. I … Read More
Peppermint Schnapps is not worth the deprivation Ice fishing promotions can lead to prostitution, an Ohio mayor declared. He has just announced his resignation. Others may have tittered about this statement, but they probably have never been ice fishing. I … Read More
Gift from the Sea is a proto-feminist book Anne Morrow Lindbergh published Gift from the Sea in 1955. It was on my mother’s nightstand and, like many women of that era, she treasured the book. I was surprised to see … Read More
When a mentor or role model dies, we may recognize for the first time that this is the role the person — friend or famous person — held for us. Baby boomers are losing more of them these days. Role … Read More
The nativity pageant with the most laughs per minute is told by John Irving in A Prayer for Owen Meany. If you have chuckled from the back pew as children in bathrobes with towels on their heads battled in a … Read More
“Feminism does not ground me. It is the discipline that comes from spiritual practice that is the foundation of my life. If we talk about what a disciplined writer I have been and hope to continue to be, that discipline … Read More
Signs across the sagebrush high desert are “Open Range. Watch out for Stock.” “Antelope Crossing.” No signs for restaurants, or gas stations, or rest stops for 120 miles. It’s a long way from the west coast to Bismarck, North Dakota, … Read More