The evolution of memory — This past week I went to Chicago to spend time with my mother and stepfather. My mother is 80 and my stepfather is 93. About fifteen years ago they moved to a 100-unit apartment a block from the house where I grew up. …

Contemplating the middle ground — For the last year, I have been working as a contact tracer. This is not my life’s passion, it was just a stop-gap job to transition from selling my business. I wanted a job and the pandemic was on in full force so it worked out. About ten months into…

Something I aspire to be — Last week I went to my stepfather Al’s memorial. Al, almost 94 when he died, was a lifelong academic and my mother planned a funeral with speakers who could talk about that realm of his life. All three speakers shared how intellectually generous Al had been. A former Ph.D. student…

Sometimes the most unexpected things brighten your day — I’ve been cleaning out boxes and going through old letters. In the process, I uncovered a stack of letters from my late father. Dad died more than twenty-five years ago and most of the letters were written when I was in college. My father was very funny. In my freshman…

The value of community Lately, different friends have been talking about “getting the hell out of dodge.” People my age — late forties to early fifties — talk about moving out of Seattle. “It’s too dirty,” they say, “it’s gotten too big; it’s like San Francisco now.” I take it…

The long-term effects of COVID isolation on our kids — When COVID struck I had recently sold my business and was feeling newly liberated. I was intentionally aimless. I spent days by myself puttering around the house, taking walks, deliberately doing nothing. …

Creating surprisingly perfect harmony — Right now I have the great privilege of running an intergenerational writing program for high school students and older adults (a.k.a. senior citizens). The program is a five-week series where participants work in pairs (older-younger teams) to create and share their life stories. I was worried about getting youth to…

Men, let me explain….. — A few months ago I wrote a piece called Zendaya Doesn’t Need to Show Her Boobies. The point of the essay was to share my satisfaction with the show Euphoria where the male characters are showing their penises in much greater numbers than the female characters are baring their breasts…

How losing taught me to win — Wordle, our country’s newest trend, has definitely swept me up and in. Wordle is the first brain game I’ve been able to stick with. It’s finite enough that it doesn’t overwhelm me. It makes me use my brain in a different way from my default everyday activities which, as I…