
And it’s summer I have a white eyelet bathrobe lined in baby blue, which I wear on the lawn after supper, and I dance for my grandmother who sits in the chaise lounge wearing dark glasses that are blonde tortoise with green lenses. Her skin is dark: tanned from years of regret. I am knocking…

How to Make Butter
When I was eight years old my father brought home home a long, rectangular cardboard box which he opened after dinner carefully outside our front door. It was a clear night and warm as I recall and he removed from the box like a surgeon removing a baby from the belly of an unconscious woman…

The Best Memory The best Fall I remember happened outside of Paris due north near Chambord in November maybe October’s when the Beaujolais Nouveau was released along with me…I walked out the door of the inn we stayed in while you drank with our host. I wandered following troughs of wet leaves…
Letting Go When There’s No Rope Left I have a friend who is trying to get divorced. This has been going on for two years. The marriage was a good length, (ten years), and a good part of it was not unhappy but the divorce has turned into a nightmare of hatred, accusations, bitterness, anger,…
I read the obituaries every morning as many people do. I have no idea why we do this. I look for reasons why people died, how old they were when they died, who survived them, etc. The other morning I saw that my childhood friend had died in February of a long term illness. There…

In our house in Maine there is a family wall where many memories are drawn or painted. The first measurement of a child’s height was done about 35 years ago when my daughter, Christina, was 2 years old. The wall is now covered with lots of memories and people who visit continue to make more of…
Jobless in the bay area Today I was lucky enough to be visited by an old friend who I hadn’t seen for 10 years or so. She came because she wanted some interviewing advice and that is what I used to teach: how to sell yourself, how to work a room, how to get the…

I wrote a while ago about Fergie and her shame and it was interesting to read what people thought. Some were sad about it as I was and some thought it was unimportant in light of what was going on in the world. I agree with both sides of the coin. When I saw the…