The End of Quiet Music
I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't want to have to sell hoodies with my face on them.
View ArticleWar and Baked Beans
It seems that all my life we have been bombing someone, teaching them a lesson. Every day I understand more deeply how violent we are.
View ArticleA Cupboard of My Own
Some children grow up feeling themselves to be the center of the universe, but I always knew I was a very tiny drop in the ocean of other people’s lives.
View ArticleMy Cloistered Teenage Soul
I spent my high school years pretending to be someone else. So how could I call the reunion my own?
View ArticleNo Husband, No Friends
What is it about being a widow that makes people pull away from me?
View ArticleThe Storm Inside
Watching Hurricane Sandy roll in, from the windows of our son’s hospital room.
View ArticleI Want to Be Friends With Republicans
My prejudices against conservatives were just as uncompromising as the prejudices I’d often projected onto them.
View ArticlePirate Nights
A containership is like a space station, the oceans of the world an interplanetary void. Reaching the next port safely is always a cause for celebration.
View ArticleDoes My Virginity Have a Shelf Life?
At 35, I’ve been holding out for so long, how can I change now? And yet I have doubts.
View ArticleI Found Myself in a Dark Wood
The death of my wife exiled me from what had been my life.
View ArticleKale? Juicing? Trouble Ahead
“You’d be better off with chocolate and cola,” the dentist told me.
View ArticleHow to Talk to Kids About Death
Some people say it’s fun after we die and some people say it’s quiet.
View ArticleA Reader Behind Bars
I daydreamed that my book would end up in the White House library. But its real path was humbler, and more meaningful.
View ArticleCousins, Across the Color Line
Descendants of slave owners and of slaves are recognizing their connections. In my family, it’s especially complicated.
View ArticleMeetings With a Murderer?
I visited him in prison when I was 9. Then I went back as an adult.
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