“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
“It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we should grow too fond of it.” ~ Gen. Lee at the Battle of Fredericksburg It’s been happening a lot lately. At first, very close to home and then further away. I’ve found parallels to modern dilemmas in my own writing and promoted those themes… 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
“People who look down on other people don’t end up being looked up to.” ~ Robert Half Percival Everett’s latest book, James, is a masterful, imaginative extension of the life of Huck Finn’s collaborator ‘Jim’, first introduced to us by Mark Twain. Mr. Everett, the Distinguished Professor of English at USC, and winner of every… Continue Reading