Yes, I could have ignored you just like I did on the other days. But you were so insistent about shaking your anti-abortion sign at me while I was trying to negotiate the turn without splashing you or hitting the pothole. And why did you drag your 10-year-old son out into the cold rainy weather […]
To the Abortion Protester I Flipped Off Read More »
My sister and I ended many summer afternoons in the 1970s green from the knees of our jeans down, sweaty, and reeking of gas and exhaust. As servants of the Great American Lawn, we regularly mowed ours, the elderly Miss Howard’s next door, our grandma’s, and once in a while, our great Aunt Flora’s. It
Our Green Wasteland: The Great American Lawn Read More »
“So, Mr. Parent, what was your best birthday ever?” My boss looked at me and waited. His query was part of a new meeting protocol to encourage team building. Every meeting, he would ask a question designed to reveal something about ourselves to the rest of the team. I mumbled something about a ½ birthday
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Dimly, through my sleepy haze, I heard the “uh, uh” like a car engine trying to turn over in bitter cold. No, my brain screamed. Not tonight. I had tests to grade the next day. Parent teacher conferences. A workshop. A field trip. Then the dreaded words, “Daddy.” I rolled over out of bed and
All I Really Want for Father’s Day Read More »
A few summers ago, just as I was beginning to publish Greenwoman, my first magazine venture, I watched the documentary The September Issue with my teenage daughter Lily. The film is a behind-the-scenes look at Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her staff during the creation of their fall fashion issue, the most important issue of the
The Devil Wears Converse Read More »
When my son, Leo, left for college, I restored my backyard pond. Suddenly, I had the time to focus on landscaping. More than that, replacing the 20 year old pond was a not-so-subtle way of expressing that in some respects I was back to where I’d been before the birth of my only child. A
Reflections on a Pond Read More »