Solace in a Book

Reading T. C. Boyle, Ellen Bass, Donna Hilbert, Kathleen Kirk . . .

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Good morning and happy July -- rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.  I've been working on something, but it isn't finished yet. So I'll tell you what I've been reading. "The Fugitive," which is T. C. Boyle's story in the latest issue (July 4) issue of The New Yorker, and there's also a discussion with him on the ethics of disease in the Page-Turner column on the web. Ellen Bass has a poem ("The World Has Need of You")  on June 25 The Writer's Almanac. Donna Hilbert has a poem … [Read more...]

The Almighty Dollar

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I was raised a Catholic. I went to Catholic grade school and high school. But I am not really a Catholic now. I have trouble with organized religions, believing faith can be corrupted once it is institutionalized. I have some atheists in my family and I tend toward the rational myself. I look at my faith as a personal thing that I don’t care to discuss. But I do not put down believers or their churches. I accept that everyone is free to make that choice and believe what he or … [Read more...]

Everyday is a gift

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Everyday is a gift so says the plaque on the bathroom wall. Of course there should be a space between every and day. It is each and every day that is the present. But the everyday is a gift too, wrapped in plain paper addressed in Papermate blue, left at the doorstep, bound in time and string near the mat, common as dirt and dust, ordinary as tap water, easy to miss. When you return to the table it may have taken your place —look before you sit. It … [Read more...]

Don’t kid yourself

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These days everyone seems to be talking about politics and the state of our world. Even conservatives and liberals concur that national politics are surreal to a certain extent. Similarly everyone in Illinois agrees that our lawmakers seem to be  a bunch of doofuses that can’t even get a budget worked out. And, look at the problems Chicago has; gun violence is epidemic. #SMH is a universal hashtag. Amid all this bleakness people my age often like to cite the inadequacies … [Read more...]