So -- zeitgeist being the social tattle-tale that it is, I admit that I recently succumbed to the book phenomenon of, yes... Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm fascinated by the collective We and what We want to read. I once wrote an essay that I never dreamed would get published...
(235) Comments | Posted June 26, 2012 | 3:10 AM
As seen on THESE HERE HILLS
Sometimes I wonder if the divorce rate would be so high if we could make a questionnaire for our love interests to fill out before we step into the abyss of a serious relationship. I'm not talking about a Match.com sort of...
(2) Comments | Posted January 17, 2012 | 10:12 AM
(586) Comments | Posted December 14, 2011 | 6:13 AM
I have had my share of Christmas trees fall down in my forty-five years. Lost balloons. Fallen souffles. Cancelled flights. Burnt toast. Tough meat. Lemon cars. I wouldn't call myself unlucky. Quite the opposite, in fact. But I can say that the butterflies of Christmases past have sort of flown...
(15) Comments | Posted November 22, 2011 | 6:01 PM
As seen on These Here Hills
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago with a central square flanked by shoulder-to-shoulder shops in brick and tudor. A fountain on one end, a Parthenon-shaped department store on the other, a park with grass and benches and a flagpole in...
(0) Comments | Posted August 3, 2011 | 9:00 AM
For 13 years I had one consistent role and I performed it well. It's been my primary area of expertise and with it I have molded social groups and inspired movers, shakers, and decision makers. I've given sustenance to the thirsty, hungry, sick, needy and taught the illiterate to read...
(8) Comments | Posted July 28, 2011 | 8:44 AM
In the face of adversity, people throw this phrase around: That which does not kill you makes you stronger. It's supposed to be one of empowerment. But to me it's not empowering at all. It's a hopeless, helpless statement, as if we have to go to the edge in order...
(1) Comments | Posted July 1, 2011 | 2:10 PM
Every so often, in the course of my life, someone has looked at me sideways and said these helpful words: "What is wrong with you?" Ever been asked that question? There really isn't an answer to it because it's not a question. It's a judgment, an insult, an attack. But...
(4) Comments | Posted June 27, 2011 | 5:00 PM
(6) Comments | Posted June 8, 2011 | 2:45 PM
In the video I posted over the weekend, David Foster Wallace talks about how our society doesn't value the art of being quiet. He says we don't take an hour to look at a painting; we don't sit all day with a book. We are uncomfortable with mind challenges in...
(2) Comments | Posted June 3, 2011 | 10:52 AM
Recently, I asked my Facebook friends to share their favorite all time book. Here are those unedited results, in the order in which they arrived. Not sure if any of these is what you might call "beach reading," but it's one helluva list. Reads like a poem. Enjoy! And let...
(1) Comments | Posted May 31, 2011 | 7:26 PM
Every year Memorial Day gets a little easier. My father died on this day, May 31st, seven years ago. He would have been an old man by now. He would have been miserable. He couldn't stand it that his 86-year-old body wouldn't let him skim down the stairs at the...
(4) Comments | Posted May 7, 2011 | 8:48 AM
My mother always says, "Once a mother, always a mother."
Growing up, I never really liked the sound of that. I thought it was sort of Bates Motel. What would I want with a mother breathing down my neck when I was an adult? Telling me what she thought...
(18) Comments | Posted April 8, 2011 | 9:16 AM
You may have read my essay about my marital crisis in the New York Times Modern Love column in August of 2009 called "Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear" or possibly read my memoir, "This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness" (Amy...
(5) Comments | Posted February 21, 2011 | 5:03 PM
(26) Comments | Posted February 14, 2011 | 4:12 AM
Munson:
I have to believe that the notion and experience of love is not gender specific, nor culture specific. I wrote a book about what happened when my husband told me he didn't love me anymore and wasn't sure he ever did. In my case, I didn't believe him and...
(105) Comments | Posted January 31, 2011 | 8:08 AM
Tom Matlack, stay-at-home dad:
Not only are stay-at-home dads macho, but all dads who show up for their kids are macho. You can't be a dad and wall yourself off from your child. Perhaps that was the way in prior generations, but one of the greatest changes for men today...
(4) Comments | Posted January 19, 2011 | 1:55 AM
When my daughter was in second grade, she wanted to be an almond for Halloween.
"An almond?" I asked her, smiling but sort of worried for her in the way of playground politics. "Yes," she said with knowing eyes. "An almond."
So we made a foam...
(13) Comments | Posted January 3, 2011 | 1:12 AM
In the spirit of New Year's resolutions, I've asked myself a question lately about the human relationship with emotional pain: at what point do we acknowledge the pain in our life and decide to end it?
Is it only when we've endured great agony that we see its perils and...
(6) Comments | Posted December 24, 2010 | 2:58 PM
Every year we go to a Christmas tree farm where we live in rural Montana, and cut down a Frasier fir. We make a day out of it. We listen to Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra singing old Christmas tunes in the...
(40) Comments | Posted July 10, 2012 | 5:14 PM