Protecting Our Humanity in an A.I. World?
Now that A.I. seems to be taking over our world, and the electronic gadgetry we carry in our pockets is an essential fact of life, I keep wondering what we can do to preserve the best of the old, as we’re propelled at warp speed, into the new. I have a feeling – somewhere [ Read More ]
The Shame Revolution
The Shame Revolution Writers (and everybody else) needs to know about this!. I recently was blown away by the work of two people both, oddly enough, named Brown. Bryan Brown wrote Soul Without Shame and Brené Brown wrote I Thought It was Only Meboth remarkably eloquent treatises on how an Inner Judge,
How to Get a Story Out of Your Head and Onto the Page
I know from your letters to me that many of you, in your heart of hearts, fantasize about writing a novel. So, I’d like to use my own wacky path to authordom, to inspire you to write that novel or to pursue whatever other passionate dream you’ve got. I know for a fact that it’s [ Read More ]
They’re Shooting at Our Regiment Now
They’re shooting at our regiment now.” I read the quote above and put down the New York Times, the gallows humor too profound to ignore. The article by Mark Epstein was quoting a friend whose contemporaries were dying. Mine are, too. At an alarming rate. My Christmas card list this year showed a disturbing number
Happy Father’s Day
There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about and miss my father. Perhaps it was the kindness that was so much his hallmark… perhaps it was his endless patience and his willingness to drop whatever he was doing to listen, to care, to act. “Want to read me a book, Papa?” [ Read More ]
A True Story About Motherhood from the Past
Bronwyn at three and a half was already a Montessori scholar. Daily she trudged to an enlightened classroom where a teacher who genuinely liked children taught her how to scrub her desk with soapsuds, mess it up with fingerpaint and repeat the process. She was understandably enthralled. So much so, that Cee Cee at 2½ [ Read More ]
A Few Thoughts on Mother’s Day
I had a very hard time with my Mother, her words mostly wounding, her anger terrifying. It was my father’s kind and loving heart that saved my childhood and my spirit. So when Mother’s Day comes round a tug of war ensues. I feel my heart segue-ing not to memories of my own childhood but [ Read More ]
Living at the Speed of Light
Remember when the speed of life and the speed of light were not identical? Remember screened-in porches meant for sitting and talking or just thinking long thoughts about life? Remember garden swings, sweet summer afternoons wandering a meadow, picking apples in the fall, a Christmas tree you’d trekked through snow to find and then helped [ Read More ]
Timing is Everything
Do the people you love own certain times of your day – stalwart custodians of some magical clock? I never meet a day or a coffee pot without remembering the sound of my father’s voice in the early morning. I see him standing by the coffee pot, his greeting optimistic as dawn, cup in hand [ Read More ]
The Insecurity List
It all started with a cocktail party conversation about the surprises Middle Age throws at you (hot flashes? Seriously?) and what to do about them – but it ended in everybody glumly deciding a facelift might be the only hope for a happy future after middle age sets in. Nobody admitted to having had any [ Read More ]