The best writing can stretch one’s mind, eliciting emotions that express the full range of the human experience. Here are two such pieces:
From Bitch, PhD, a lamentation on the subject of popular racism in America today.
And when you need to cleanse your mind from the outrage that article will surely enflame, please read Bongi’s [...]
When I was growing up, our house was mere blocks from the main street of our little town. The main street, itself stretching only a few blocks from the factory to the high school, was messily bisected by a railroad crossing. That crossing was a prime reason we kids learned train safety before [...]
Hot on the heels of a tale of bedtime trauma:
As we left Acorn’s preschool today, I asked him about one of the boys in his class.
“What’s that boy’s name? Ken?”
“No, Kenneth!”
“Oh, I see. Kenneth. Is he fun to play with?”
“No. He doesn’t make good choices.”
Not making good choices, I had [...]
Scene: My 70-year-old father collects a package in his name at the post office.
Postmaster: “Woman Within, huh?”
Dad: “I try to keep an open mind.”
“Dis car is flying!” Acorn proclaimed, humming a little tune he made up six months ago and hadn’t used since.
“Is that Super Car?” I asked.
“No, it’s Crrrraaaazy Car!” And then he sang to himself (rather like Frances, who sings to work out intense emotions — in this case, I suspect it was joy):
Super Car,
Flying [...]
In a single image, Ruth Stewart of Knitting on Impulse gives us well over 1,000 words on the tranformative power that the process of making art can wield over lives that might otherwise be drab and beige.
“Stop that,” he said. “Stop talking.”
“Acorn, that’s rude to tell your Momma to stop talking.”
“I is going to make you.”
“You’re going to do what?” Imagine me a little more alarmed than the simple statement might warrant: coming from Acorn’s mouth, it sounded like he said, “I is going to smack you.”
“I is going [...]