I have a super great old friend from college, Jen. She’s a writer (here’s her book) and a journalist. And a mom. She lives in Des Moines and recently she acquired chickens. She and her husband and her kids have chickens in their backyard. Do you ever look at your friends, when they do...
At the post office, the hated post office, where lines greet me and awful racks of greeting cards Line walls, ignored. The post office and its Perfume of desperation. The place where scales and stamps sit in dusty corners Like aristocrats awaiting their bloody fate. The post office, doomed, because It is about PLACE...
Guest Post by Writer-Runner-Teacher Tricia Dowcett Whenever my mother asks me what we would like for Christmas, I always reply that I would prefer to do rather than to have. A show, a day in Boston, a trip to a museum. She will usually frown and insist that at Christmas, the kids should be able...
This is a guest post by author Jennifer Wilson in the BIG QUESTION series “What Does America Want?“ Her book “Running Away to Home” is released today. – To begin, a caveat: I’ve gotten around as a professional travel writer for the past 14 years, and I don’t have a solid blanket characterization of...
When a girl turns 12 And lives in poverty Her future is out of her control. In the eyes of many, She is a Woman Now. Married by 14 Pregnant by 15 She may have to sell her body to support her family. What’s the solution? There are 50 million of them. girleffect.org Today...
This is a Guest Post by Matt Brotherton, part of the BIG QUESTION series: “What does America Want?“ – I don’t know that I can speak for everyone out there. I’m not sure anyone can define what an entire nation of people really want. The differences between people can be like night and day....
The following blog post is part of the BIG QUESTION series for September, asking “What does America want?” – Search term: ”Halloween Costumes for Little Girls” Search Engine Platform: Google Images Top four hits: Halloween is now a night for girls gone wild! But this is old news. Even mainstream media has been squawking about...
I find myself slipping. I know I shouldn’t look down on that other person, but it’s all too easy to do it. I see a man sitting in his car in a parking lot with his engine running for several minutes at a time. I think of wasted fuel, money and burned petroleum added...
Google+ is now a part of my life. I am mostly thrilled to add it to my collection of ways to communicate with people I know and don’t know online. These also include: Twitter LinkedIn Picasa Flickr WordPress Blogger Facebook Gmail Digg And many others. Just as I pondered when I started dabbling in...
I-74Across the Mississippi–That Familiar vein throughMy life I Cross this morning east.Your still flatness hides Lonely strongCurrentsPulling me back. Day 9, A River of Stones
You ever get a bit of time where you feel like you are just dry out of ideas? I never seem to be out of ideas, but it seems like lately I keep hitting a wall of no. The wall of no has quite a few people sitting on top of it, their hairy...
Even though I am about halfway through my natural life, I still have a hard time finding meaning in Memorial Day. There are all sorts of rituals I participate in on this weekend: parade, barbeques, packing away the winter clothes, getting the yard ready for summer. But those are colloquial. I know Memorial Day...
Or, On the Research of Choosing You. Neuroscientists have been doing a lot of good work for those of us who consider ourselves creative, artistic and “right-brained.” Personally, I think we are all this way! This is fantastic news. Yes, our scientist friends are discovering that the Right Brain– with its power to love,...
So I’ve been home in the town where I grew up for a few days to visit my ailing Dad. I am always relieved to get here, and feel it viscerally. But at the same time, my visits are filled with the anxiety of missing someone, letting someone down, not seeing enough of who...
I used to be one of those annoying, know-it-alls about education. “School is the only place for a child to learn what it is REALLY like out there in the world.” I’d sneer. Well, then, what happened was: I actually MET people who homeschool. I spent time around their kids. I learned more about...
Recent Comments