There’s no doubt about it anymore, this year has grown old. We’ve gone through the frigid days of winter and the balm of summer and spring. Then we sailed through the most colorful parts of fall and now the world’s turned cold again. It’s hard not to look at the shortening days and the denuded tree branches without feeling a little regret over the closing of the year. A holiday season is great but there’...
when we're being whipsawed by change and conflict, we may not see the puppetmaster manipulating us through our connections....
Whatever happened to the Odd Kid on your block? Everybody grew up with at least one; I’m talking about those kids who seem to be born outsiders, who say and do unpredictable things and never fit in well with the rest. The kids that even surprise the adults when they talk. You know the ones I mean. And if you don’t have one of these kids in your memory, you might have been the class misfit. God knows I was one. So what? I...
Everyone remembers people and events that shaped and changed their lives. Long after they leave the world’s stage, these individuals and events inform and direct us through memory. That’s how I feel about Neil Simon’s plays; they are touchstones from my childhood. That’s reasonable: when I was young he was the King of Broadway. His movies set some of my first standards for comedy. But, that was a long tim...
The first time my Dad saw my adult home, he muttered, “I don’t know why you and your sister moved back into the woods.” Although I hadn’t realized before, I instantly knew what he meant. Although we grew up on the plains, both my sister and I chose homes in densly forested areas. I can’t speak for my sister, but I must say that I do love living surrounded by trees. The Forest Primeval Then again, I’m ...