I have always been a sucker for advice columns. I began reading “Dear Abby” as a child. The column could be found on the same page as the comics, crossword puzzle, and […]
Desperately Seeking Advice
How Can We Use Social Media Better?
During the Black Lives Matter protests immediately after the killing of George Floyd, I was posting much, much less on social media than I’m used to. Normally, I post at least once […]
500 Lifetimes and Trying to Find My Own
I was looking for comfort of some kind when I read a friend and fellow writer’s post. He wrote that this is something that I am “500 lifetimes away from understanding.” He was saying it to the world, to white people, but I took it personally. I hope that was his intention because it is changing me. Maybe trying to understand isn’t the best goal. Maybe taking it personally is a better one.
Black Writers, White Privilege
So many white privileged people have been telling me that I too am privileged. While I am willing to acknowledge this truth, my question for them is Now what? Surely acknowledgment can’t […]
My Last Bikini
Once upon a time I was a new mother. It was before body positivity, before athletes and models came in all shapes and sizes (though I admit we still have a long […]
To Mask, or Not to Mask?
This made me wonder if, at some point, we’re going to become a society of “the masked vs. the unmasked.” If so, how will we be viewed? Will the masked be applauded? Ostracized? And will the opposite happen to the unmasked? Which way is society going to go?
Flash Nonfiction “His Apple Pie”–a dog, a pie, a bad guy
I’m proud and happy to announce my flash nonfiction essay, “His Apple Pie,” about a border collie and a bad guy, appeared today in Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction. For […]
Gazing into My Crystal Ball, or Life Post-Coronavirus
Now, more than ever, it seems important for U.S. citizens to be skeptical about the information we receive from the media. As has been demonstrated in study after study, we as humans […]
Ice Storm Quarantine
Nearly every spring when I was a kid in the 1970s, growing up on a horse farm in rural central Illinois, we had ice storms. Often they came in the late afternoon, […]
Corona: I Hear You Knocking But You Can’t Come In
If she were one of the ones in the ER, which line would she go on? The left one that lives or the right that dies.
The Gloria Sirens 