I have a variety of connections on Facebook. Some of them are people I talk to outside of Facebook; many are not. Over time, I’ve seen photos of friends with a partner who is not their spouse. After some trolling of photos, I deduce that they got divorced at some point and this is someone … Read more
Sometimes, while doing the most mundane things, an entire series of events—starting at the mundane thing and ending somewhere else—pops into my head. Like this one. As a kid, I never learned how to floss. Probably my dentist Dr. Silver taught me, along with some dollops of shame about my general oral hygiene habits. He … Read more
It doesn’t feel right to prattle on about the usual things today. The problem of gun violence is overwhelming. The problem of black people murdered by police is overwhelming. The problem of racism is overwhelming. There are solutions or partial solutions to these, and we rationalize our way around them. How do we connect when … Read more
“Hey, you got a card from someone,” The Climbing Daddy said one day last week when he brought in the mail. There wasn’t an occasion or anything attached to it—just a card that said, in sum, “I’m glad our paths crossed” from a relatively new friend. It was lovely. It made my day. I have … Read more
As part of a conversation in episode 42 of No Stupid Questions, Stephen Dubner made mention of people who lived through—and therefore, for a period of time, adapted to—horrible situations, and then shared this hypothesis: “All of us can adapt to some degree. But with something as simple as removing sugar from your coffee, to … Read more
Too long, didn’t read. I can’t listen to hour-long podcasts. I don’t click on videos that are more than three minutes long. As a creator, I feel pressure to create content that is meaningful, that will connect with my audience, that has substance and value, and is short. If it’s too long, no one will … Read more
I have a lot of drafts of blog posts. What’s interesting at this moment is how many of those drafts are currently not relevant. Drafts of things from January or February 2020, before the pandemic came to this part of the world in force. Notes and thoughts and paragraphs about pieces of life that don’t … Read more
The Kid and I were talking about our school-day mornings recently. On that particular day, I had woken up half an hour before the alarm. The alarm is half an hour before I need to wake The Kid, and I wake him half an hour before we need to leave. I got up and took … Read more
NextDoor is not known for being a place of warmth and positivity. Someone’s car got broken into and they posted about it. Scores of comments on the post that mainly fell into three categories: 1-mine too; 2-that sucks; 3-were your doors locked? At some point, the writer conceded that he hadn’t locked his doors and … Read more
It’s been almost a year since my household stopped doing normal life. The last time we went to the climbing gym was March 14. I’m sure we ate out that night. Some things have been hard. There are people who I would see casually, not necessarily people I’d set up a Zoom with, who I … Read more