"What are we talking about in 2020? Kobe Bryant, Covid-19, social distancing, Zoom, TikTok, Navarro cheerleading, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylore, and...The presidential election. A country divided. Opinions on both sides. It's everywhere: on the news, on the late-night shows, in the papers, online, online, online..." -Elin Hilderbrand (28 Summers) I read an…
It goes without saying that moving is a tricky business. You collect your things, box them up carefully (or haphazardly; it really depends on the stage of the process), and, ultimately, hope for the best. The last time the Greek and I did this, we were sure that some of the potholes we…
It is terribly true, even if the truth does not comfort, that if you look at the moon for long enough night after night, as I have, you will see that the old cartoons are correct, that the moon is, in fact, laughing. But it is not laughing at us, we lonely humans, who are…
Alice in Wonderland birthday parties; Spanish-speaking nannies; healthy children harvesting perfect blue chicken eggs from the back-yard coop; homeschooled wonders who read by age three; flat, tight bellies; happy husbands; cake pops; craft time [...] homemade lip balm; tremendous flat pans of paella prepared over a beach campfire. What sort of sadist is running these…
You will have only one story. You'll write your one story many ways. Don't ever worry about story. You have only one. -Elizabeth Strout (My Name is Lucy Barton) If you've read your fair share of world literature or seen a lot of classic movies, you might have noticed that novelty isn't always the…
I find that time moves differently when you travel, or at least that's how it feels when at each and every turn your senses are being assailed by new sights, smells and flavors. It's both exhilarating and exhausting, an experience that you want to savor, but, by the time you've moved onto the next wonder,…
I am a keeper of flocks. The flocks are my thoughts and all my thoughts are sensations. I think with my eyes and my ears, with my hands with and with my feetand with my nose and my mouth. For to consider a flower is both to see it and smell it and to eat of fruit is to understand its…
I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say, "'Tis all barren": and so it is: and so is all the world to him who will not cultivate the fruits it offers. -Sterne (A Sentimental Journey) via George Eliot (Daniel Deronda) During the last week of July, with the soundtrack…
Goodness is a large, often a prospective word; like harvest, which at one stage when we talk of it lies all underground, with an indeterminate future; is the germ prospering in the darkness? At another, it has put forth delicate green blades, and by-and-by the trembling blossoms are ready to be dashed off by an…
The little society, one and all, entered into this laudable design; and set themselves to exert their different talents. The little piece of ground yielded them a plentiful crop. Cunegund indeed was very ugly, but she became an excellent hand at pastrywork; Pacquette embroidered; the old woman had the care of the linen. There was…
Dining with Dostoevsky 