Dragons

Today is the feast of St. George. I was, and am, a dragon. My elementary school mascot was a dragon, and I was born in the year of the dragon. I learned I was a dragon, in the latter sense, by reading a red Chinese food menu with gold drawings of animals, eating in a restaurant […]

Fish is Fish

The heart wants what it wants, I guess. I wanted a fish, and I although I remember wanting one before I saw “Finding Nemo,” it took a decade before its lessons wore off enough that I could consider having a domesticated fish to be a humane practice. Just another victory for Pixar. My residual nervousness […]

Squeezed

“Like a snake is squeezing you, maybe?” I offered. My students are working on a project which requires them to create a symbol for a problem they have overcome. “Lots of people, when they get anxious, have tightness around here,” I gestured around my chest. “I definitely feel it there.” “Yeah, like I’m being squeezed,” […]

Sun

I saw Lincoln’s poor threadbare hat in the American History Museum, but my heart wasn’t open until I saw a Degas, a very rough Degas in reds and browns and blacks with awful lines and a turn in it that grabbed me. Somehow looking at paintings teaches me about form in writing, moving my eyes around […]