The circle turns. The green world again goes gold, yellow, red. Instead of the zucchinis, the excess of which we may have complained about only six weeks ago, we now coo over adorable gourds and mini-squashes, admire big honkin’ pumpkins and sweet, bright creased or crook-necked winter squashes. So pleasing aesthetically, sculptural, decorative, signal of the season. And then! Beneath those… Read More
MOTHER’S DAY, IN ITS INSISTENCE ON SENTIMENT AND BIOLOGY, IS CRUEL TO MANY, REDUCTIVE TO ALL. “MOTHERING” TRANSCENDS REPRODUCTION, EVEN GENDER. IF WE ENLARGE OUR UNDERSTANDING, WE BRING WHOLENESS TO OURSELVES AND MAYBE EVEN HELP HEAL THE WORLD JUST A LITTLE. Everyone who doesn’t die young will someday have a motherless Mother’s Day. This will be my fifth. In 2015, at… Read More
WIDOWHOOD IS NOT STATIC. IT KEEPS CHANGING, AND IT KEEPS CHANGING US. IT HAS AN INFINITE NUMBER OF COLORS. HERE ARE FIFTY OF THEM. 1. I take a lot of deep breaths this time of year. 2. It’s fall, the season inherently bittersweet and elegiac. All that plush color and harvest, all that stunning beauty, some years almost ostentatiously spectacular…. Read More
