Why are we so good at “moving on,” but not quite so good at sitting and staying where it hurts? When I look at this world, the morning hasn’t come. I can’t quite wrest my heart out of the pain to move forward into joy…and …
Read MoreHow (Not) to Dress for Chess
I wonder sometimes, when school (and chess) officials deem a growing girl’s outfit inappropriate, if they’ve forgotten to remember the part about “growing.” When my sons outgrow their clothes, people comment good-naturedly on their high-water pants or short shorts. When my daughters outgrow their clothes, they …
Read MoreRiding the Phoenix
My nine-year-old son is terrified of roller coasters. Or, more accurately, my son is terrified of many things, “roller coasters” being only one entry in a long list of terror-producing entities. Roller coasters are notable here, not because they cause anxiety, but because, despite being …
Read MoreThe Futility of Lent
We pray and chant and confess and lament, all the way to Good Friday…all the while still committing the same sins that made Good Friday necessary in the first place. Like the reveler who on New Year’s Day reaches half-awake for the coffee she has …
Read MoreBringing the Bible to Life
Bringing the Bible to life may seem like an insurmountable task. But Mark Burnett, producer of the popular reality series Survivor, and wife Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) committed to doing just that with The Bible, a 10-hour miniseries that debuted on History Channel …
Read MoreThe Sin Behind My Swearing
Then my 2-year-old got his arm stuck in my husband’s didgeridoo. The better part of an hour later, his arm was still stuck and the proverbial end of my rope was fraying fast. I was carrying him around with his arm wedged into a four-foot-long wooden …
Read MoreMy So-Called Home Office
If you have a bed in your office, which I do—a crib, actually—then it’s not an office. I also have blocks, toy cars, a tent to play camping, a castle with two dragons, and about 700 stuffed animals. My home office, like those of so …
Read MoreThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks isn’t exactly a household name, but ask any scientist who works in any capacity with cells and cell lines, and HeLa is almost as ubiquitous as oxygen. That these ubiquitous, “immortal” cells came from somewhere—specifically, from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks—is …
Read MoreThere’s Power in the Blood
Anne Rice, whose Interview with the Vampire (1976) and subsequent Vampire Chronicles have established her as the premier vampire-centric storyteller of this generation, believes the creatures continue to fascinate because we see something of ourselves in them. “The vampire is a monster who preys on his brothers …
Read MoreAngels and Insects
I realize that invoking a philosopher to stop a tantrum flies directly in the face of one of my parenting goals—that of helping my children, these products of two overeducated and consistently over-thinking parents, blend in with everybody else. But my commitment to that goal …
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