Whose writing is it, anyway?
A fellow writer just asked me whether I use AI to improve my writing productivity; if I do, what tips would I share with beginners, and if I don't, what would help me get started? I sat with that for a bit. Then I chose Option 3: I don't and ...
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
It started at my grandmother Rose’s burial. She and my Grampa Irving had been married for almost sixty-five years, so it wasn’t surprising when she lasted only two months in a world without him. The funeral was in late June. So it also wasn’t surprising to see a dragonfly flitting ...
It’s a cruel, cruel summer
So much joy here on Beach of My Heart. The fancy camera is giving me a whole new way to love this place… and to remember the beauty forever, because every year we know this is precious time that may never come again. Fear and loss are here too, always, ...
Harvard, Veritas, and Gandalf
My feelings about Harvard are complicated. But when I think about how I want my alma mater to conduct itself right now, that’s simple. I hope Harvard will spend down every damn penny of its endowed billions rather than let the Trump administration break them, if that’s what it takes ...
Owner of a broken heart
“To be alive right now is to have a moral injury.” That phrase keeps coming up for me on coffeewalks lately. Looping in my brain. Or maybe it's my heart... or my soul, if such a thing exists? I think the phrase is mine, but the concept isn’t. Moral injury ...
New kid, old block
William Copley, "Imaginary Flag for USA," 1972, as photographed by me at Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/9/25. SCENE: A few days ago. Low on sleep, feeling raw because I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t stop fretting about the safety of my loved ones, the ...
Whenever, wherever
"Can I ask you... if they come for me... where do you think they'll take me?" This f*cking heartbreaking question. Today, from my wonderful beloved young trans friend, whose eyes are suddenly about to spill tears in the middle of a discussion that was about politics. But the political is ...
Never say goodbye
This is not the post I was going to write today. It's been a rough week, hasn't it? Waking up every day to a renewed deluge of cruelties. Knowing this is only the beginning. This morning, it all hit me hard. Suddenly I was nearly crying on my coffeewalk. My ...
To Whom It May Concern
MEMORANDUM TO: White people and everyone with relatively greater privilegeFROM: Your fellow privileged white personRE: Efforts to outlaw DEIDATE: Today and every day——————————————Just a reminder: We look at the world around us to assess *how* to continue advancing justice. We do not assess *whether* to continue advancing justice. Yes, we ...
Hopscotch
Today. MLK Day. Inauguration day, which I won’t capitalize. Sometimes, as I coffeewalk through the cemetery part of my loop, I think about the aphorism “The days are long, but the years are short.” People say it about parenting, but I think it’s true in a broader sense too. I’m ...
Why can’t you see
I saw Elvis a couple of weeks ago. It did not go well. Everything started off fine. M and I had gotten tickets to take my mom and stepdad to a tribute band at a winery in nearby New Hampshire. Just a fun little holiday outing, especially for my mother ...
