When We Stood Still

My brother is the space nerd in the family. Months in advance of our one family trip to the mecca of all family vacation places—Disney World: where dreams come true!—he puts in his request to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is his boy version of getting pulled up on stage …

Stay Strong, Stay Soft

I wonder how it felt. I wonder if he really registered the heft of the rock in his hand before he hurled it or if his mind was already watching a different movie play out—the one where he bragged to his friends about what he’d done as they passed around a bottle of beer and …

Gather Good Stuff

Hey America, how are you doing this week? Maybe not so great. Maybe feeling a little, I don’t know, anxious? Perhaps you’ve been startling awake at night clutching your midsection that throbs with some kind of thudding ache, the kind that is only one of two things: existential dread or an ill-fated decision to get …

The Fuller Cup

The two cafes faced each other like wild west gunslingers: The Fuller Cup and Starbucks. Scarcely twenty paces from one another, the cafes occupied space on a side street just off the main square of Winchester—a quaint, affluent town less than ten miles from Boston. The tiny downtown section unspools in a series of rotaries …

Let Go or Be Dragged

At first glance I thought it was a cricket. Its small, black body had that unmistakable exo-shine like the glossy sheen of a polished boot or Ronald Reagan’s hair. It looked about the right size and I could see two wings protruding from its sides. Then I noticed the antennae, the elongated torso, the thready …

Hawk & Crow

The hawk swung itself around in a series of long, lazy loops in the sky. His pace seemed leisurely; he cruised over the lake content to wait out a surfacing fish. Why should he do all the work? Every few minutes he sounded a strange bleat, which is what drew my attention upward. The call …

Rage in Aisle Five

The man wearing the bike helmet was angry. I silently labeled him “Angry Man.” It was 7:30 on a humid Friday morning and I was standing in the supermarket check-out line when Angry Man clomped over in my general direction. Seven-thirty feels too early for so many things (clomping definitely), but also thinking clearly or …

The Hopeful

There is no shortage of hopefulness in Harvard Yard. This is a different place than Harvard Square—the interconnected spines of streets in Cambridge Massachusetts that both skirt around and incorporate parts of Harvard University. The school bleeds into the square (don’t let the name full you, virtually nothing in Boston or its outlying areas conforms …

About That Scar…

The scar never properly set. It was a straightforward, common surgery that left me with a six-inch scar resembling a piece of train track drawn in a child’s clumsy grip. Puffy ridges of pinkish-white skin crested along a newly created fault line that began just under my rib cage and ended above my hips. I …

Make It Your Monday

I like Mondays. I know—not going to get me invited to the cool kids’ table any time soon. “Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day,” tell us how you really feel Mama Cass. Monday just needs a fair shake. Agreed, Sunday is a tough act to follow. Especially if it’s been a sun-fueled, backyard grill, trail …