Last night I slept with the windows open and this morning around 7:30 I was woken up by a man yelling on the sidewalk. He eventually moved into the middle of the busy street next to where I live and began yelling at the...
My husband's family has a cabin deep in the woods of Northern Michigan. So deep in the woods that the first time he took me and turned from a dirt road into a random, unmarked clump of trees and up a hill I thought, "Well, here it is. Here's how my life becomes a...
I am on the el in the middle of the afternoon. At the end of the almost empty car, in the part that's slightly separated, and so perfect for sleeping, is an older African-American man. He is standing up and yelling about something. He is not loud, but he is yelling in...
It happens at every camp, every year. With tools stolen from woodworking or arts and crafts children scratch and scribble their names on bunks, shelves, cabin walls, anywhere they can. The camps try and prevent it, they threaten that any and all graffiti will be...
Most 21st century parents are big on "consequences." We talk about the consequences of actions, we try and outdo each other to make sure we are allowing are children to suffer the natural consequences of their actions (don't ever, ever bring a middle school child or...
Yesterday, November 8th, was obviously election day. It was also the umpteenth anniversary of my friend Mark's death from AIDS. In many ways, Mark's death was my "first." I knew other people who had died, friends of the family, distant relatives, those beautiful, wild...