Last

What protects you, at the end of the school year, is that you are so tired. My first few years, I was frustrated by how dead and hollow I felt. I wanted to feel sad to lose that group of kids, but they were like ghosts to me in the last weeks of school. Or […]

Architectural Cravings, Fatherly Advice, and Closed Doors

“For a few of my Harvard years, I taught drawing to architecture students, and during that time I became convinced that we human beings gravitate toward spaces that are metaphors for our inner lives.” –Martha Beck, Expecting Adam, Berkley Books, 1999.

My house has slanted ceilings, while my workplace has generous, soaring space above.

Fisherman

I almost stole a fish basket. I was fifteen when the family converged on the old farmhouse to divvy up its contents. My great-grandparents had a crackerbox of a house. The story was that someone found the house in a dry creek bed, and hitched it to some horses who pulled it out onto the […]

Before I Get Old

When I was seventeen and attending a Pearl Jam concert, I was concerned that I was uncool because I had never been to Europe or had a boyfriend. Also, my pants were usually wrong, one way or another. At last night’s Pearl Jam show, I was afraid I was uncool because I am old. Thirty-three. How times change.