Monster in the Closet

Somehow, we continue to dither about how or if to change our health care system. We have shown great leadership at some times in our history, but when I read about how we compare with other countries today, I worry that we are stuck in fear. The other industrialized nations of the world have shown […]

March to April

In March, I went to the computer to subscribe to the New Yorker, and found out one of my students had been shot. He was dead. I was having another one of my seizures of certainty that I could not be an educated person, a writer, a worthwhile human being, without subscribing to the New […]

Forgetfulness

I finally visited my grandmother, showed her my photos of Rome. She asked me three different times if I had seen the pope. She’s trying to politely inquire about my recent vacation. But her brain is going, and she loses access to her “I just said that” file, and even the “grandchildren’s names” file, from time to time.

… in a Box.

I was disappointed to learn that the pope is not keeping God in a box at the Vatican. Or if he is, that it was not part of the tour. I didn’t realize it until I had been there, but my half-Catholic blood is always secretly hoping that the Catholics have a direct line to […]