Category Archives: Life Lessons
EASTER
TweetWhen I was young, our Spring-time ritual was to go to Phoenix, Arizona for the Easter holiday. Phoenix was where my mother’s parents lived, and we took the train because my father didn’t like to fly. I remember those Easters
MEN WHO BEAT WOMEN
TweetIn the Nineties, I dated a man whose hands frightened me. He didn’t raise them in anger to hit me, but he had battered me so thoroughly emotionally and psychologically that I always kept an eye on his hands, suspecting
A CHRISTMAS WISH
TweetChristmas has always been a difficult time of year for me. It’s no secret that I come from a challenged family, and Christmas did not bring out the best in us. Looking back on my childhood, my fondest memories were
MEMORIAL DAY
TweetWhen I was in high school, a boy a year ahead of me lied about his age and joined the Marines. It was the height of the Vietnam War, and that’s where he was headed. I didn’t know him that
HOME
TweetThe street behind my gym has become a sort of tent city. Homeless people have turned the sidewalks on both sides into their own encampments. Shelters have been fashioned from blue tarp, piles of bedding are wedged between plastic water
IN A FRIEND’S DEATH, A LESSON FOR THE LIVING
TweetI wrote this in 1999; it was published in The Washington Post. Lewis, the friend I lost during a time when so many were dying of AIDS, came into my mind recently, so I decided to reprint this. A
GOODBYE 2015
TweetI’m glad to see this year go. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Whichever month you choose, the memories haunt, the heart hurts, and it’s devastating to tally up the tragedies. So many lost lives, so much violence that
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
TweetWhen I was a child, my parents would choose one night to drive me around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights. The lights at our house were not that elaborate; my father put up a single strand of lights
UNWRAPPED HOLIDAY GIFTS
TweetA friend of mine lost his mother to cancer the other day. We’d had a long phone conversation the night before – mostly about getting older and falling prey to diseases that turn out to be cunning hunters. We talked