Over and over again last week at divinity school, I was asked how my summer had been. I was seeing folk I’d not seen since last semester and the question was more of a greeting than an inquiry. I knew that, but I stumbled every time to say something that could sum up the last [...]
In 2003, Margaret, my youngest, started kindergarten. Now, six years later, it’s time for her to move on to the next stage: middle school. Feeling more than a little nostalgic, I thought I’d run this never-published memoir-moment that recalls my sentiments right after Margaret left for her very first day of school. The last few [...]
“Baker!” Three-year-old Margaret clutched her chest, staring at her five-year-old brother who himself was in the grips of laughter. They’d been playing hide-and-seek: Baker stone-still in a hidey hole just big enough to hold him, his little sister frantically seeking him out. Margaret, unbeknownst to me, had become increasingly convinced that Baker was lost forever. [...]
It wasn’t something a boy got to do every day you know: taking the Trailways™ bus from his home to his grandparents place 20 miles away–especially by himself seeing as he had half a dozen siblings who would have loved to have joined him. But that’s just what my daddy did one Georgia day some [...]
“It’ll get better,” the stranger said, punctuating his insightful comment with that know-it-all belly laugh that indicated he knew exactly zilch, “in about 18 years!” His laugh crescendoed, then faded into the distance as he walked away shaking his head, still snickering at his own joke. I looked into the two-week old face of my [...]