Growing up as a Catholic, taking Confession struck me as a wonderful device.  Whenever I did something wrong during the week, if I confessed on Friday, the priest would assign me a few prayers to recite, and “poof”, like magic, I was absolved of sin.   If I missed a week, I cou

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”  When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote those lines in his novel, The Great Gatsby, he may not have been striving for poetry, but he exposed the truth–which is what great art does. Lauren Larson isn’t an a

The podcaster interviewing me about my memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home sounded incensed. Why had I clung to my engagement plans for two years before admitting I was being jilted?  “Couldn’t you see it coming?” the man asked. His question wasn’t friendly, but it didn’t sto

The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, has reinstituted Shira law in his largely Muslim country.  Now, the likelihood a child could lose a hand for stealing an apple is real.  Sex without a marriage license will carry the death penalty as will homosexual behavior.  The weight of t

A roman a` clef is a story of real people and real life but one given the gloss of fiction. Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence mirrors the life of artist, Paul Gauguin, for example. Tender is the Night by Scott Fitzgerald and Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe are two other n

Lucille, a character from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, that classic exploration of power and money, shrugs when her expensive dress is torn at a party. “I never care what I do, so I always have a good time.” (3.23-25). Not caring seems to be the hallmark of som