I’ve been having a similar conversation with a lot of people recently. It goes something like this: “I’m feeling really overwhelmed” my friend or student says. “I’m really worried. I don’t know what to do and I’m finding...
I’ve been lucky to spend the past ten days out of the city, spending less time on my computer. We’re renting a house on a lake in Maine and yesterday as I was swimming, a huge bird flew above me, circling and circling, flapping its enormous, graceful wings that seem...
Monday was Martin Luther King Day—it was very cold and I stayed inside, baked some bread, spent some time with Eric and Simone, worked on an essay, and had dinner with some friends. All day, I was also thinking about the legacy of Dr. King, who is such a model of how...
What we value: wealth, writing, and more. I’m writing from Maine, and I’m very lucky to get to spend a lot of time outside in the summer. For most of my adult life, I’ve prioritized time over money, the leisure to appreciate over the ability to...
Today I want to share some words from Audre Lorde’s essay “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” If you’re looking for Lorde’s whole essay, you can find it here Lorde was a black feminist poet, essayist, and activist,...
Sometimes my students ask me whether it’s okay to write from anger. I tell them, of course it is. Anger can be a good motivator. Often we have good reason to be angry, and our anger can help us be social justice warriors. It can direct us towards making...
