“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”~ Margaret Mitchell from Gone with the Wind. The ominously memorable line from the Hollywood version of ‘Gone with the Wind’ placed its male protagonist, Rhett Butler in an unforgettable scene. How unthinkable it was that anyone could deliver such a blatantly unsympathetic line to the… Continue Reading
Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance—Albert Maysles I’m often intrigued by the derivation of unusual expressions that have become common in our contemporary speech. I remember being amazed at learning where ‘a wet blanket’ came from, which I’ll leave up to you to search out for yourself. You have AI and Google now, neither… Continue Reading
“The best protection any woman can have … is courage.” —Elizabeth Cady Stanton How often do we try to imagine ourselves in a situation where others were challenged by the fluctuations of life and somehow stood up to them? We ask, could I possibly have been as courageous as they were? Would I have fought… Continue Reading
“Family patterns—like family secrets—repeat themselves.” ~ Iyanla Vanzant There has been a rash of books lately on the topic of family secrets. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that children weren’t included in a lot of family news when I was… Continue Reading
Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. ~ Charles Eames Finding myself still struggling to work my way up from the depts of the recent election, I realized recently how jealous I was of one of my favorite writers now gone. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in a 2008 essay in Harper’s Magazine titled, Staying… Continue Reading
“One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.” ~ Jeanette Walls “Summer reading,” the woman said, with an apologetic shrug translating as a plea for forgiveness. That outgrowth of embarrassment was meant to explain both the book and its title, neither one of which I remember to this… Continue Reading