I walk into the kitchen and I smell it before I see it. Lime. Gin. Tonic water. I lick my lips. Remember the old movies? The alcoholic walks into a bar and his face contorts in misery. He licks his lips. He covers his mouth with his hand. He fidgets and shoves his hands in his pockets. And you think to yourself, He’s going to end up drinking. He looks so weak, in so much pain. How can he possibly [...]
My friends, I am honored to introduce a guest blogger today. Christie Tate blogs at Outlaw Mama from her home base in Chicago. She is an attorney, legal writing instructor, and mother of a 2-year-old daughter and a 15-month-old son. She is grateful for enough peace in her relationship with food to be able to obsess about other things, like her children getting into preschool or whether to go back to work full-time. Christie’s post, “Back from Hell,” left me [...]
My daughter gripped her pen and hesitated. “So Mom, how’s your writing going?” I sighed. I was tired. “Good. I’m in the middle of a scene.” “What’s it about?” Her voice rose. “Is it inappropriate?” “Yes.” “Oh, does it have people, like, kissing?” I rubbed my face with my hands. The muscles around my eyes felt tight. “No!” “Is it like when the mom murders the father?” “Sort of, but it wasn’t murder,” I started to explain. And then I [...]
Judging Friends Audio Recording above–click on the red words “Judging Friends” to listen. In 11th grade, I completed an essay and in it, I quoted the biblical phrase, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”[1] I wrote a precocious albeit philosophically naïve two pages about the nature of condemnation without comprehension. To my mind, the concept of judging others meant that we should not judge others before we take the time to understand them. And it is a truism that [...]
“Sleep Tight Ya’ Morons!” –J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. Someone asked me yesterday what genre I write in and the truth is, I belong to no genre. It’s not that I am a nonconformist; shoot, Ayn Rand said that the worst conformists are those who try desperately not to conform. When I think of a nonconformist, I recall my wear only black, protest against Domino’s and Coca-Cola, drop acid and orgy friends (and no, for the record, I [...]