My great-nieces introduced me to the phrase “cheese tax.” I thought they were referring to the duty paid when importing dairy products, but it quickly became clear that they were talking about dogs. “Cheese tax” is that variable percentage of human food offered as canine appeasement. Faced with the doleful, bottomless stare of a dog, …
When I was a kid, we lived within blocks of two different libraries. The city library was an imposing edifice of stone and stained glass and silence; the county library a big, well-lit room in the redbrick county office building. While its architecture was uninspiring, that county library was a treasure trove, a warren of …
Many years ago, I had an old Volvo named Goldy who had an unfortunate tendency to stop dead in her tracks for no discernible reason. We had just moved to a new city. I needed a desk, and had found one for sale, way out in the sticks. On my way there, traveling along a …
Her daughter had terminal cancer. “I’m grieving,” she said. Then she said, “I’m also savoring.” There are a lot of conversations about grief and loss lately. The child losing her struggle with mental illness; the limp suddenly revealed as bone cancer; the partner just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. These are personal places of powerlessness and sorrow: …
Sometimes we have conversations with friends and family who live in bigger places. They tout the benefits of having a hospital close by, or a gaggle of specialty clinics, or good restaurants, or public transit, or easy access to airports. One of these conversations happened recently when we were traveling. We were meeting friends for …
I was so shocked when I read the Tyee article, I spit out my coffee. A geologist in B.C. is arguing that minerals should be declared legal persons, and mineral deposits “should be recognized for their right to be mined and processed to provide sustenance to mankind.” This is twisted, folks. Granted, legal personhood has not …
There were twenty-odd women and one man, dressed in black, standing by the side of the highway in silence. In our hands or around our necks were signs detailing the numbers dead in Gaza, in Israel, in the Ukraine, Syria, Sudan. Signs about starvation. Signs about war in general. Signs about what religions say about …
When I was younger, I hated going to parties. I never felt comfortable: I didn’t do small talk well, and I felt awkward just standing there. My most common feeling was that I didn’t belong. Ask any teenage girl if you want to know how painful it is not to belong. Book clubs, FB groups, …
The green fecundity of spring brings an equal explosion of bugs. The air around the waking maple tree vibrates with the hum of bees; the sugar ants march endlessly across the bathroom counter; the first wasps of the season make their hot and hurtful presence known; and then there are the ticks. First notice came …
Many of my friends put some pithy quotation across the bottom of their emails. The extracts vary from “I have a photographic memory; unfortunately it was never fully developed” to a definition of liminal space. But one quote occurs repeatedly. Originating with medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, it reads, “All shall be well, and all …
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