I turned 60 last year. Other than my 16th (I could get a driver’s license), 18th (I could vote), and 21st (I could drink liquor legally), I had never paid much attention to the numbers. But 60 kinda got me. So, I did something to remind myself I’m not dead yet—I went to Japan and […]

I’m piggybacking on the Mondays with Mike post about civics this week with an essay written by Mel Washburn. Mel is a writer in one of the memoir-writing classes I lead for The Village Chicago, and the essay he came up with for the prompt, “A Song from Your Teenage Years That Sticks With You” […]

A couple updates on last week’s post: First, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate students (members of the Graduate Employees Organization) stayed on strike long enough to end up getting what looks to be a fair deal for themselves. Hats off to them and their supporters, which included their undergraduate students and their counterparts up […]

Back in—I think it was early1986—Beth was several months into blindness, and a baby was on the way. And I was out of work. At first, unemployment was by choice. I was home to help Beth in the early months of learning to live in a completely different way. Before she lost her sight, we’d […]

I’m not quite at full speed, as I have contracted the cold from hell that I’d managed to avoid—until last week. I’ve thought I was over the hump more than once, but the virus just won’t take a hint. So, with my thinking and writing faculties compromised, I’ll just share a few pieces by some […]