Last week I turned 58. The birthdays all seem to be one big blob now. The exuberant 16th, 18th and 21st are long forgotten milestones. Thirty, forty and fifty were, I guess, somewhat noteworthy. But now, I don’t think much about them. The writer Richard Ford referred to this stage of life as “the permanent period” […]
Forty years ago this summer I graduated from high school, I was working at the candy and nut counter at Sears at the local mall, and I spent my summer anticipating just what life at the University of Illinois would be like. I also met my newborn nephew for the first time, and changed my […]
Live theater is a marvelous thing. Witnessing actual people up there on stage in real time creates a tension and energy that, for my money, makes even middling plays worth the time. And then there are those times when live theater is magical, powerful and unforgettable. That’s how it was yesterday, when Beth and I […]
A few years ago our German friend Gerald visited with us on his way to an extended hiking holiday in Alaska. He’s smart, perceptive and analytical, so it’s always fun, and sometimes painful, to get his take on us Americans and our America. (For the record, he’s a good sport and takes his share of […]
A couple weeks ago as I walked to a sandwich shop I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of a boy in a wheelchair and a man, presumably his dad, collecting themselves on the sidewalk. They had clearly just unloaded from the car parked nearby, and were readying for a walk. It wasn’t […]