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 […]
All posts filed under: search for meaning
Scene 3 — Owl
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 […]
Scene 2 – Bug
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 […]
Scene 1 — Sissy
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, […]
Old people
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, […]
Be what?
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 […]
Get to the point
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 […]
Welcome to my mountain, part II
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 — […]
A silly lunch
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. 