“We make lists because we don’t want to die.” So says, Umberto Eco, medievalist, philosopher, and author of Foucault’s Pendulum. With lists, we attempt to manage time, knowing time is a nonrenewable resource.  A list fixes a task to memory and gives us the psychological satis

Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted he was stunned to see people of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) applaud when they learned Tennessee had halted all vaccinations for minors, including those for Covid-19.  The state said it wanted to protect parents’ rights to make medic

Most societies link human childbirth to the spiritual. “It’s a miracle,” a new parent is likely to gasp upon seeing his or her offspring for the first time.  That sense of the divine is not lost in patriarchal societies. To downplay the woman’s role, religious myths credit th

When I entered the second grade, my life fell apart.  World War 11 was raging.  My mother divorced my father and became a single parent–an immigrant with a modest command of  English and no job skills.  My father, angry, left us to fend for ourselves and that meant my mother

A man in his 50s admitted on Facebook he was depressed about the changes he saw barreling down on society like a runaway train. He doubted the alterations were for the better.  As he is a liberal thinker, I supposed he was suffering from Trump fatigue and wondering, as I do, when our

A large book agency has asked to see the first 50 pages of my memoir, “Getting Lost to Find Home.”  I’m not turning cartwheels.  Most agents ask for sample pages as part of the query.  This one required a query before deciding to see more. Call it a baby step forward.  A req

Recently, a friend sent me a quote ascribed to the American anthropologist, Margaret Mead. It was her answer to a question that asked what constituted the first signs of civilization in a culture.  She said it would be a broken thighbone that had healed properly. In the wild, the dis

During the second impeachment hearing for Donald Trump, a woman with a sense of irony shared this line from George Orwell’s novel, 1984 on her Facebook page. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.  The quote garn

In Costa Rica, or Panama or Honduras, wherever they’d migrated, when the piggy bank was empty, my maternal grandmother worked shifts in a local brothel to put food on the table.  She wasn’t a regular sex worker but rented rooms by the hour.  If she couldn’t afford the fee, she

The thief was furious when he found a 4-year-old child strapped into the back seat of the car he’d stolen.  His response was to slam on the brakes and reverse direction.  Finding the mother newly emerged from the grocery store with a gallon of milk, he scolded her for leaving her