This morning, as Zoe was headed for another week of 9th grade, she said she still liked school, but what she didn’t like was being in school for eight hours to get two hours of learning. I knew just what she meant. By her age, I’d been feeling that way for a couple of years… Continue reading Post-Industrial
Standing in the ruins
of Cahal Pech in San Ignacio, Belize. There is a lot of speculation as to why this city was abandoned after thriving for 1000 years. I’m looking at the quality of the construction–the dressing of the stones, how carefully and masterfully they are laid up–and I’m wondering about the way these beautiful spaces were used.… Continue reading Standing in the ruins
The Weight
I can’t bring myself to say anything nice about Robbie Robertson, who wrote The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. 1969 marked the rise of a southern inflected Americana in “hip” popular culture—Dylan’s Nashville Skyline was released that same year. On the folk side, it departed from the protest music of the Phil Ochs, the… Continue reading The Weight
Healing and Toxic Positivity
Retirement, career change, aging, call it what you will. I’m experiencing those changes, I’m feeling addled, or wiser. Call that what you will, too. This morning, an article in the Washington Post. I so admire Deb Haaland, and I admire Joe Biden for appointing her. She’s sitting in long public meetings, taking testimony about the… Continue reading Healing and Toxic Positivity
Painfully fragile
A friend reposted this cartoon today. It’s from the 7/1/2015 New Yorker. Let me deconstruct the experience here. Attention is first drawn to the child, and the carefree, joyous innocence of childhood. What could possibly be wrong with a parent’s impulse to protect that innocence? Then, in the caption, the innocence is revealed as a… Continue reading Painfully fragile
Why they chant: USA! USA!
US Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and George Santos showed up in NYC, outside Donald Trump’s arraignment, on this day, April 4, which happens to be the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Here is the key fact that most people on our side—the side for democracy and against authoritarianism—will miss about the… Continue reading Why they chant: USA! USA!
Learning the craft
Here’s a great thing about learning the craft of writing: It’s completely OK to charge ahead, even when you don’t know what you’re doing. This makes it very different from engineering, or from fixing houses or cars, to use examples from my experience. In those endeavors, when you don’t know what you’re doing, your supplies… Continue reading Learning the craft
It’s all right now, in fact it’s a gas (stove).
Republicans: Really, ban gas stoves? Outrageous! Intrusive! Democrats: We’re not really proposing to ban gas stoves. Well, at least not right away. The Republicans’ outrage is performative. The Democrats’ response is weak, unconvincing, entrapped. What causes this? It’s not just the Democrats’ messaging, as bad as it’s been. We’re working from a bad paradigm, an… Continue reading It’s all right now, in fact it’s a gas (stove).
2023
Last May I applied for admission to San Francisco State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. I started in mid-August and completed my first four courses in mid-December. In 15 weeks I wrote three short stories, a dozen poems, and an evening-length play. Grades are posted, and I’ve established that I can… Continue reading 2023
Nancy
It’s hard to express how much I admire Nancy Pelosi in this moment. Her supporters—Democrats—have been divided and unreliable, summer soldiers, the kind of allies that are quick with a savage criticism, and who were often clueless about her accomplishments and what it took to achieve them. Her detractors—Republicans—are fascists so extreme that, when one… Continue reading Nancy