People ask what the Women’s March on Washington was for, anyway, as if not rallying around a single discrete issue is mere silliness. To them, I say: if only there were a single, simple, self-contained issue. Gosh, wouldn’t that be great? Here’s the thing. When trouble advances, women are pretty much always on the front […]
What Was the Women’s March For? Read More »
Shaken. Oh, and stirred. Whomever you voted for on November 8, this election has left a lot of us shaken and stirred up, to boot. How plan the day when the president-elect snubs the Constitution, a delightful friend has invited me for coffee and pie, religious do-gooders chisel away women’s rights, and a mere twenty
Daily Dilemma Plus Beef Bone Broth and Barley Soups Read More »
For now, the swish and swish is all there is. The wooden handle of a rake with its metal-tined delta is all that I, who have come soul-tired, need. That, modest strength in my shoulders, and the blue tarp onto which I toss leaves with a swing that despite everything can’t but be joyous. It’s
The Solace of Honest Work Read More »
Toggling. I think that’s the word. It’s got a good ring, anyway. Attending to one thing here, another there – specifically writing across genres – is giving my new meditation muscles extra gymnastic training. As I bounce between diverse projects with varying levels of responsibility and reward, I’m trying to keep in check all the
Writing across Genres… or Not Read More »
Harriet Tubman chuckling in heaven. That’s what I’d like to think as her response to the news that her face will grace the front of our new twenty dollar bill. With no small bit of humorous irony, grace it will. See, in the case of Harriet Tubman, her money was your money and yours and
Harriet Tubman – Her Money, Your Money, and the $20 Read More »
May the work of this day bear the print of your heart. Ah, Marc Chagall, thank you for this and for so many wonderful paintings! Perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised to find Gibran’s The Prophet illustrated by Chagall, as it was Khalil Gibran who said, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot
To Work with Heart Read More »
What is it about an other that can be so… well, whatever you wouldn’t come up with yourself? When it comes to creativity — making something new whether on canvas, with sound, in writing, or out of clay – most people work alone. It’s a solitary life, the way of an artist, isn’t it? Then
Friends, Partners, and the Creative Life Read More »
At what point in writing does one book become another? In the editing, rewriting, re-editing and re-rewriting of a project engaged over years, should we just call it a different book? (The shadow question is, of course, at what point does one pack it away, brush off one’s hands, and turn to something else?) In
A Book, Changed — On Writing Read More »
Just thinking: Obamacare may well raise America’s creative capital — from the arts to invention, entrepreneurs to public intellectuals. I’m hearing a lot these days in reaction to a CBO study showing that one effect of national health care is that fewer people will work full-time. I cannot tell you how many times I have
Health Care and the Creative Life Read More »
I confess I’m getting a little tired of starting over, beginning again, all that. Then there’s this: Did you know that when you were born, you already had a grip strong enough to support your entire newborn baby weight? Yup. Me, too. So hang on, little tomato, as Pink Martini sings. Hang on.
