“What do I say when people ask how many kids I have?” A friend of a friend wrote this following the death of her young child. It’s an anxiety I’d almost forgotten in the two decades since I was in her shoes. At the heart of this question is the fear your Read More
Thatwhich
Editor/writer or writer/editor: Who will slash whom?
May 16, 2015
There have always been two sides to my work: writing and editing. When I was a freelance magazine writer, I also copyedited academic manuscripts. In the editorial positions I’ve held since then, I’ve tended to wear both hats, although rarely at the same time as that would mess up my hair. But for my personal writing—like these words you are reading now, if I can ever get them to pass muster—the roles blur as I type. The word “Backspace” on my keyboard is almost completely worn off. My editor is silencing my writer. Read More
Why I read the obituaries
March 25, 2015
This is not news to those who know me, but I like to read the obituaries. Like seems like the wrong word in this context, so I may as well call it what it is: a compulsion. I’ve postponed writing this for a while, waiting until a window of time when no one I know, even remotely, has died. I realize that for those who have recently lost a loved one, my obituary fascination may come off as a little glib. It’s not, glib as that may sound. Read More
Putting it out there
January 1, 2015
I came across a yellow legal pad with my writing from some 30 years prior. Several pages in I wrote this, in a whisper of fading pencil: “Ms. Brande says that if I can’t do the exercises I should find another vocation. She has me scared into writing.”
At first I was confused, but I soon realized that Dorothea Brande was the author of Becoming a Writer, first published in 1934. As an aspiring writer almost 50 years later, I bought the book and diligently performed the exercises designed to “tap the unconscious.” Read More
At first I was confused, but I soon realized that Dorothea Brande was the author of Becoming a Writer, first published in 1934. As an aspiring writer almost 50 years later, I bought the book and diligently performed the exercises designed to “tap the unconscious.” Read More
Thinking around the box
November 2, 2014
If you’re a writer who needs to make a living, eventually you might take a job in marketing, as a copywriter. (Don’t get me started on that title. What would one write, if not copy? It’s like calling someone an “art creator” instead of an artist. But I digress.) As a copywriter, you will inevitably be asked to “think outside the box.” The client will make this request as if it were a gift. Read More
Jonah as God's Project Manager
September 28, 2014
House of Mercy, Feast of Jonah
As he listened to the worm crunching away at the only comfort he had left in the world, Jonah wondered: What if instead of praising, lamenting, and beseeching God, I had offered God a SWOT analysis? At a seaside café in his younger days, Jonah once overheard some guys talking about “learnings” and “leveraging” and the importance of having good thought leadership. Read More
Is it that time already?
September 10, 2014
I brought Churchy the turtle inside tonight. It seems a little early, since it’s not even mid-September. I found him under the rhubarb plant. Though the temperature has been dropping all day and now it’s in the 40s, he hadn’t burrowed into the earth. Keith says he wants Churchy to have Read More
Advice to young adults leaving home
August 7, 2014
I don’t have a top ten, just three main themes. And face it, if you’re packing up for college or whatever voyage of self-discovery your privileged existence can afford, you don’t really care to read ten pieces of advice from someone’s 50-something mother. So I’ve distilled it down to three main points. Take heed. Read More
Unforgiving
July 25, 2014
Just as grieving is a process that can return in ass-biting waves long after you’re sure you’re done with it, I am toying with the idea that forgiveness, and unforgiveness, is also a process. To be clear, I believe forgiving is an important step toward sanity. You can’t be pissed off at your worst offenders indefinitely. Read More
A checkered future
May 8, 2014
I have a lot of strong feelings about really stupid stuff. Just today, I became incensed when I heard that someone at the company I work for insists on using two spaces between sentences. I mean, any modern media professional knows there should be only one space. The two-space thing is a holdover from the Read More