Category Archives: Uncategorized

Second thoughts. We all have them. That bungee jump seemed like an incredibly good idea when we were sitting in our friend’s living room, but now, standing on the edge of a huge cliff with only a bouncy rope to catch us… we begin to question our initial enthusiasm. These uninvited thoughts can arrive whenContinue reading “have third thoughts”

I just finished re-reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer for the third time. To be completely honest, I half read/ half listened this time around. The book on tape version has the most wonderful narrators and I found the combination of reading/listening to this particular story brought even more depth to the novel.Continue reading “find your own safe place”

I had a big decision to make recently. I kept talking to my boyfriend about it and, often, asking for his opinion. He doesn’t like to influence my choices too much so he held himself at bay… rather valiantly. But I felt like I was going in circles. In my head, I kept thinking ofContinue reading “write it down”

The May 16th copy of New York magazine contained an article, “Paper Tigers” by Wesley Yang, which dealt with 1) the stereotyping of Asians as quiet, placating, and self-effacing, 2) the cultural background for these qualities, 3) the reality and non-reality of this stereotype, and 4) whether or not Asians should adapt to an American culture of assertiveness andContinue reading “cultural assimilation: learning, adapting, or mimicking?”

“I had a dream. Crazy dream. Anything I wanted to know, anyplace I needed to go…” (Led Zeppelin)  And so the song remains the same. And the dream remains the same. And the dream changes. And thereby so does the song. And so I urge you to think about change and about constants… and about whereContinue reading “the song remains the same…and sometimes it changes”

I have food intolerances… not strict allergies which will make me break out into hives or stop breathing when I eat particular foods… but intolerances that make me exhausted, upset, sluggish… that give me headaches, indigestion, acne. When I eat these foods — including corn, dairy, wheat, and sesame — I feel “off” — sad,Continue reading “‘healthy’: the chameleon of self-righteousness”

n 1907, James Ball Naylor wrote a poem entitled “Old Home Week” which read as follows: PART I I was sitting in my office, — far above the busy streetWhere the laden barks of business come and go,Where the rushing streams of traffic swirl and mingle as they meetAnd the surging tides of commerce ebbContinue reading “old home days or reunions of sentimentality”

I just wrote a wonderful post about being lazy… and then erased it. Really, it is time for me to just be completely lazy. Ugh… Incredibly frustrating… but being the determined person that I am, I am going to attempt to recreate the post as best as I can. It began as follows…. I don’tContinue reading “slow moving molasses lazy”

One of the last novels I taught this year was Life of Pi. Early on in the narrative, Pi explains his notion that freedom is mistakenly correlated with happiness. “I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion. Well-meaning but misinformed people think animals in the wild are ‘happy’Continue reading “the unknown: ‘adventure beckons!’”

Yesterday was the last official day of work at our high school… and it was my last day as a teacher there as my future plans are taking a new turn. It was a significant ending. And endings open the flood of other endings like a storm surge. Last week, I was grading a batchContinue reading “when it ends, it pours”