Dancing

I went straight from a Midwestern Baptist-style funeral to summer-steamed New Orleans. One minute I was singing a hymn in a pew, and hours later I was on a bus staring at the rehabbed Superdome, seeing the ghosts of the abandoned along the clean sidewalk. I had to say some firm, abbreviated goodbyes to get […]

Contradictory Desires

Yes, I’d like everything to be different. But not if it means everything can’t be the same.

Mother Courage

Setting: An oral surgeon’s office in the second-wealthiest county in the United States. On one wall are paintings of pitchers and bottles. On another, a huge ugly abstract painting with a black frame. In front of the black-framed picture sits a woman, 32, with blonde hair and dark roots, and dirty black patent-leather shoes. She […]

Pascal’s Wager

The last two summers of my elementary school years, I went to camp. The first time was pretty scary—I rarely had slept away from my parents. Although I was generally an independent sort, when there were sleepovers, friends slept at our house. We were the party house. I was worried about becoming homesick the way […]