I grew up reading the news. My local newspaper was slight in size, but I started reading the paper from front to back at a relatively young age. I loved baseball and football, so I obviously made my way to the Sports Page, but I read the rest of the paper too. The topic didn’t …
Glass-half-full
The year has seen its share of challenges. I haven't seen any Murder Hornets yet, but I'm sure they're on their way. In my own household, the Coronavirus pandemic has shut down my daughter’s Peace Corps tour, cancelled our trip to see our son in California, and forced my youngest son’s school to an awkward …
Getting a pink slip
For the first time in more than 30 years, I have nowhere to go when I get up tomorrow morning. I don’t have to jump in the shower, rush out the door with a piece of toast or muffin in my mouth, and race the car up the highway. I don’t have to stop at …
See the world
I pick up a frosty drink and take a sip. I’m lounging on the soft Caribbean sand and couldn’t be happier. Before I have time to really savor the image, a worker in a white jump suit walks up with a large classroom eraser in his hands and erases the picture from my mind. He replaces …
Bigger, better, stronger
When I was a gawky kid, whenever I brought home my report card, if I had a B, I immediately wanted a A. If I had a A, I wanted an A-plus. When I ran cross country in high school, if I cut 15 seconds off my 5k time, I wanted to run the exact …
The artist dying to come out
When I was 20, I took a drawing class. I believed in the Liberal Arts tradition that college should be about more than just checking off a list of required classes. I believed that college should help you to become a better person. You should learn a career or trade, but also learn about yourself …
Learning from failure
The teacher walked up and down the aisle handing out magic markers and brightly colored folders like you might find at an office supply store. I got a red one, the girl in front of me got an orange one. It was the first day of school, I was starting the sixth grade, and, of …
Better together
I met them by accident. She was an older African-American woman with a permanent hunch caused by years of hard work as a housekeeper and hours slouched over a needle and thread. She couldn't see real well anymore, but her hearing was still pinpoint accurate. She could read a room without ever seeing it. In …
Honey, can you help me find my keys?
I’ve worn glasses since I was in fifth grade. I hated them at first, because they made me stand out and, trust me, no one in elementary school wants to be called "four eyes." In time, though, I got used to them, they're just a fact of life. I’ve had big ones, small ones, rectangular …
A frank look at white privilege
I remember the first time I heard the term “white privilege.” Oh, the African American student who yelled it at me, didn’t use the actual term white privilege, it wasn’t a word that you heard all that much back then, but his point was still the same. It was a chilly spring day, but the …
