THELEARNING CURVE I have a friend in her late sixties who is smart and healthy. Sheworks out, her mind is keen and her instincts are sharp, but I’ve watched her get less experimental and more rigid. “Why don’t you learn to play the guitar?” I asked her once when...
LEARNING WHAT YOU NEED TO TEACH There’s a saying that we teach what we need to learn. I don’t agree. In my experience, if we don’t know something, trying to teach itseems irresponsible. Rather I believe that we should teach what we know, not what we don’t...
CHOP WOOD,CARRY WATER “Do you like to cook?” I asked one of my writingclients a couple of months ago. “No,” she said. “The last time I cooked was in1975.” That didn’t seem to bother her a bit. But it bothers me that I don’t enjoy the dicing and chopping it takes...
HOW CATS HEAL I was relaxing in bed a few evenings ago, watching a mindless TV series, when I heard a thundering bang. It sounded like a metal statue or a huge book case had fallen just outside my bedroom door. My cat, Star, let out a terrible cry and I jumped up see...
Leave Yourself Alone At the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the nineteen eighties, I received a card from death and dyingadvocate, Ondrea Levine. On the front, it says, “Treasure Yourself.” Inside it says, “Love is the optimum strategy for healing.” I know this, I’ve...
THE LIFE OF INANIMATE OBJECTS When the Covid pandemic struck and we were directed to shelter in place, after the initial shock wore off and I accepted the fact that I was going to be alone in my house for an extended period of time, I started organizing piles of...
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