My son got home late last evening. I wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy. After his 13-hour day, with plenty of homework ahead, he looked tired and discouraged. His reason for being so late? An informational session on a scholarship program, and its first set of qualifying exercises. He perked up when he talked about it, […]
Who do you trust?
When I wrote about the film, Closer, I was intrigued by the fine line between honesty and dishonesty, genuine connection and its simulation, and the ways in which we deceive ourselves when we love. There is nothing more fascinating – to me – than adults dealing with each other. Men and women, interacting. The issue […]
Flipping the switch
On parenting, on pending Empty Nest, on making a difference.
Friday the 13th (but I’m not superstitious)
Friday the 13th? No – I’m not going to tackle slasher movies, and I’m not going to write about superstitions! But with the proverbial places to go and people to see (as alliteration ambles along my edges), how about 13 possible posts for your perusal – in honor of Friday the 13th? … Up for […]
The Answer Man
The search for answers.
The Public Face
“Who are you, really?” he wrote, in an email. That’s not a question I answer easily. I know my public face, and my private selves. I keep them fairly separate for a number of reasons. And I like it that way. Who are you may seem like a simple question, but it isn’t something I […]
Discipline
It is a holiday weekend in the US. Families are gathering, preparing picnics, watching Wimbledon (as I will be, shortly) or their other favorite sports. They’re preparing for foot races under a sizzling sun, for fireworks in the local park, for unwinding. They are slowing down. Pulling in. Taking a few days off. I am […]
Shower Shockers, Water Worries
Shower shockers Who doesn’t do some of their best thinking in the shower? And who doesn’t recall the terrifying shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller, Psycho? Janet Leigh is unwinding after a harried day of larceny, an eerie encounter with a creepy character, and is lulled as she finally cleans up, letting her guard […]
The Best Laid Plans
Our best laid plans? Life has other ideas.
Can We Ever Truly Know Our Parents?
It’s Father’s Day. The first thing I did when I woke was go straight to the small framed Polaroid of my dad and me, taken on the last day I saw him. Father’s Day, nearly 25 years ago. There are a handful of other images tucked away. But that one, of the two of us, […]