My dad goes in for a memory test. He thinks he didn’t do well. I could hold this test down and punch it until it passed out, gushing blood from its nose, and sorry. Our identity, mine, my mom’s, my dad’s, rests on being the smart one, the clever one, the one who goes faster, […]
Read More unhistoric actsParents versus teachers: we’re sort of on the same team, and sort of not. When we clash, it’s ugly. I didn’t go into teaching to sabotage or attack students. In fact, it hurts like the dickens when you suggest I haven’t done a good job. When left unsupervised, about 1/4 of my brain obsessively catalogues […]
Read More Take A Load Off Annie“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.
Read More Architectural Cravings, Fatherly Advice, and Closed DoorsA hospital is an exciting place: some people are there to sprout new people; some people are there to die. The post office is clearly a less dramatic location. Still, as I stood in line, I was cradling my stack of papers like I held a state secret. There were three people ahead of me. […]
Read More Send Off
Going On 