When my daughter was in high-school she worked at Bagel Central, an iconic establishment in downtown Bangor. Laid back and sunny with floor to ceiling windows and wire baskets of bagels; racks of Danish, rugelach, muffins and cookies; and glass cases of endless desserts, spinach […]
One of life’s big existential mysteries grabs up a 3-year-old, his middle-aged grandmother and a random old guy walking by. We drove up under the canopy of the retirement community, opened the trunk and the passenger side door and grabbed the first load of birthday […]
There has been a misunderstanding. I thought the object was to be better, thinner, faster and richer. I see now I was confused. The object is to hold my seat so that I can know and be who I truly am.
Greg Pickle was the first kid I knew who had real life tragedy strike. We were in third grade when his mom crashed the car and killed his little sister and crippled him. He would forever after walk with a limp. And I would look […]
Owl misbehaved so badly a year and a half ago I had to fire her. I refused to acknowledge her or any of the other cast members for almost a year after that. Up to that point she’d been what you would expect of a […]
Walking down the driveway something caught my eye. Glancing at the ground I saw a bug dragging itself along with only its front legs because it was missing the back half of its body. I was horrified. The sight of a living thing forging ahead […]
There should be some 1 – 2 – 3 instructions for what to do when someone is a jerk. Or when things don’t go your way. Or when you say — with complete conviction — that you are going to do one thing and then, […]
She was tipped over so far to one side in her wheelchair she was almost horizontal to the floor. From this position she was trying to drink a cup of cranberry juice. I stared across the table at her, entranced. Was it possible? Apparently. Somehow, […]
Let’s face it: on occasion we all fall a little in love with someone we want as a friend or a romantic partner but who, alas, does not feel the same way. This is what I overheard a colleague talking about the other day, adding […]
I was trying to inflate myself, make myself important in some way I hadn’t earned by tagging onto something noble I was told my parents had done. Though self-elevation wasn’t new to me, I was especially driven to it in the writing class I was […]
I committed my first cruelty at the innocent age of 4. And I knew it. We were a team almost from the get go, Amy and me. In the 4-kid ABBA rhyme scheme that was our family pattern, we were the tight middle core — […]
I could hear the laughing getting closer and closer before they busted through the door of the drama lab, shouting out, “Ms. Clayton, do you want to know how to eat a peanut butter sandwich in one bite?” They tumbled in like puppies, these two freshmen from […]
Be cool. 