Those Damn Questions
I realized today that questions make people uncomfortable, and the askers of those questions are not so great, either. I don’t know, however, if I should call it a breakthrough. Maybe it’d be better characterized as a memory. Do you…
When Clarity is Needed
In The Power and the Glory, considered by many to be Graham Greene’s masterpiece, the whisky priest is on the run in Tabasco, a state in Mexico where Catholicism was outlawed in the 1930s. Priests are being rounded up and…
The Silent Treatment
I wake up in the morning and, after figuring out what day it is, think, “Hey, I get to write today. I wonder what I’ll say.” It’s a nice thought. For more than a year, I was in the habit…
Out of Captivity
I feel like, after a lifetime behind bars, someone has opened the door of my cell (and yes, it was locked by others) and let me walk free. I turn to look back, and I finally get to see my…
Bring It
I spent my life not speaking up for myself. More regrettably, the last 25 years have included way too many instances of me not speaking up for my six children. I learned this reticence from my parents. My mother’s life…
Confession
After a Lifetime of Lies, It’s Time to Face the Truth I have been avoiding this post, but doing so is taking a physical toll, and I can’t put it off. A small, shivering wave of anxiety comes over me…
Pattern Recognition
I face an important decision each morning when I get downstairs and lift the blind on the window behind my desk: do I awaken my computer and check in with the world or live in blissful ignorance for a little…
Which Words?
I could fill your inbox with words, day after day. Most of the posts I write and publish now end up at about half the length at which they begin: and that’s just counting the words that I type. The…
Just Read the Book
Well, I must say that I was surprised to find a (Collecting Thoughts Press) post from The Before Times (March 2019: remember what the world was like then?) that made me smile and made me think, Yup. Still applies. Since…
Being Honest with a Friend Should Not Require Courage
When my fourth child was almost a year old, I had an important conversation with a friend, but I had no idea, at the time, how important it would be. Perhaps I should look her up and reach out again,…
Are You Threatening Me?
The husband of a sister-in-law wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a vintage political “pairing” to the most recent family Christmas gathering: “Reagan/Bush 84.” This fellow and I were standing in the kitchen, where the conversation was lagging. Therefore, I decided…
Freedom is Hard to Hold
Explanations are for English Papers In the process of putting away Christmas decorations recently, I washed five cut crystal vases and two candlesticks and arranged them in pleasing groupings on the mantel. There’s still a big empty space in the…
