My eyeglasses are like a school of fish that swim through the house. Just yesterday I knew their secret hiding places. Where are they today? It’s morning, and I have my coffee. Now it’s time to read something. No glasses. I yell out to the house, as my father did before me, Who stole my spectacles?! No answer. There is never any answer. My voice must spook the fish. There are half a dozen glasses finning in the school, gathering and dispersing in random patterns. Cheap readers, these aren’t

My eyeglasses are like a school of fish that swim through the house. Just yesterday I knew their secret hiding places. Where are they today? It’s morning, and I have my coffee. Now it’s time to read something. No glasses. I yell out to the house, as my father did before me, Who stole my spectacles?! No answer. There is never any answer. My voice must spook the fish.

I woke up at 1:15 in the morning and reached for something boring to read so I could go back to sleep. It was a mistake.

I woke up at 1:15 in the morning and reached for something boring to read so I could go back to sleep. It was a mistake. The book I found was The Impossible Will Take a Little While, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb. Its subtitle was Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times. And it was perfect…and imperfect. Perfect because it had 52 short essays by people I have admired for years. Brilliant thinkers and writers like Alice Walker, Desmond Tutu, Diane Ackerman, Vaclav Havel and John Lewis. Arundhati Roy,

As I sit here writing, I am surrounded by grief pamphlets, newsletters, and books. All of these are meant to be helpful as my family approaches the third anniversary of my oldest son’s death due to suicide. We don’t know why, or what he was struggling with, or how we could have helped. But I have learned a few things.

As I sit here writing, I am surrounded by grief pamphlets, newsletters, and books. All of these are meant to be helpful as my family approaches the third anniversary of my oldest son’s death due to suicide. We don’t know why, or what he was struggling with, or how we could have helped. But I have learned a few things. First, depression and grief are similar and wear many masks. Sometimes it looks like lying in bed crying for days. Sometimes it means looking at old pictures and smiling at a

Southern diarist Mary Chestnut wrote the following in the ever-escalating period leading up to the Civil War: “We are divorced North from South, because we hated each other so. If we could only separate politely, and not have a horrid fight for divorce.”

Southern diarist Mary Chestnut wrote the following in the ever-escalating period leading up to the Civil War: “We are divorced North from South, because we hated each other so. If we could only separate politely, and not have a horrid fight for divorce.” So, here we are in 2021 with a vocal minority of the country numbering in the millions living in a parallel universe not grounded in objective fact and holding a perverted sense of the meaning of “tyranny.” On top of that are a disturbing number

This week it was announced that six titles by Dr. Seuss would no longer be published due to racist imagery and sensitive situations. The announcement was immediately called out and criticized with headlines like “Dr. Seuss gets canceled.” But let’s be clear about what actually happened and what it means.

This week it was announced that six titles by Dr. Seuss would no longer be published due to racist imagery and sensitive situations. The announcement was immediately called out and criticized with headlines like “Dr. Seuss gets canceled.” But let’s be clear about what actually happened and what it means. First, this is not an instance of “cancel culture” or politically correct censorship. It was a decision initiated and instituted by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the corporate entity that oversees the