Writing from the Heart: Heart smart
I teach writing workshops and sometimes I start by saying, “We’re alchemists. We can turn hurt into gold. We can dance it, we can sculpt it, we can watercolor it. But in here, we...
Community Perspectives: ‘Not Waving, but Drowning’
In a post on the social media platform X, far-right political pundit Nick Fuentes wrote, “Your body, my choice. Forever.”
Some might argue that statements like these are being shared by just a few loud...
Writing from the Heart: Where should we begin?
A few months ago, a friend gave me Esther Perel’s party game, Where Should We Begin? It's basically a bunch of cards with questions that when answered, evoke personal stories. The questions go from,...
Writing from the Heart: For God’s sake, it’s Sunday
I’ve been thinking a lot about death these days. Maybe it's the dry and curling leaves on the side of the road. Maybe it's because on the obituary page, they give the ages of...
Writing from the Heart: Special healing powers
It's not just that my major addiction is candy that makes Halloween my favorite holiday, it’s the dressing-up part. It’s such a great excuse to be someone else, even if only for a night.
Our...
Woodside Story: Advice for oldsters
I don’t know if most of the elderly around me are as spacy as I. I’m spacy AF, but I need to add that I’ve always been that way, so it may not be...
Writing from the Heart: Interview with self and friends
One of the only sections of the New York Times Sunday paper I read is the book review. And one of the only parts I never miss is the piece right in the beginning,...
Writing from the Heart: De-rustifying
I thought I would never lose it. I thought once you could sing you would always be able to sing. I know I have (oops had) a good voice. In high school, even though...
Writing from the Heart: Steak out
I have always wanted to be a vegetarian.
Not one of those rigid, announcing at a dinner party “oh no thank you I don't eat meat” kind of vegetarian. But someone who quietly takes a...
Writing from the Heart: Perception and perspective
Before my friend Richard retired from teaching at a fancy college, he was a consultant for a big firm where he worked with the top executives from a few of the Fortune 500 companies.
On...
On My Mind: Finding the unexpected
Fred Waitzkin, part-time Islander and author of “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” told me that for years he had been “oblivious to homeless people. They had become part of the furniture of the New York,...
Woodside Story: Romance among the elderly
Let me get this uncomfortable thought out of the way: Death plays a big part in any so-called “happily married” couple making it over the 65-plus finish line. And let me just add that...
Writing from the Heart: Chances
Yesterday I was invited to a book talk at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven. My cousin, the author (whom I only found out is my cousin about six months ago, when she did...
Writing from the Heart: To the heart of writing
I'm reading Carol Gilligan's brilliant book, “In a Human Voice.” It’s been 40 years since her landmark tome, “In a Different Voice,” the book that swept the nation and became the core curriculum for...
Continuing the legacy
Last Wednesday, June 19, a less recognizable red, white, and blue flag was raised at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs in honor of Juneteenth. Juneteenth, which is also known as the Emancipation Day of...
Writing from the Heart: MVP
Some years ago, I was one of three judges at the Chilmark library for a children's poetry contest. There were 40 entries, and after the three of us completed our reading and had made...
Writing from the Heart: ‘Who’s Tom?
In 1997 I was the recipient of the Artist in Residence award at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Prior to my interviews with the board and the director there, I had never been to...
Woodside Story: Celestial enlightenment?
Sometimes astrology can give us fresh answers for why everything is running amok. It’s def amok, right? And so we’d like to know what the heck is happening. And here’s the Big Data from...
Writing from the Heart: Out of the mouth of babes
Remember Bush Jr.’s No Child Left Behind?
It was a lofty idea that didn't work then, and with one in five children living below the poverty line today, it's obvious that 15 million children have...
On My Mind: Thankful
It had been a month since I’d cantered through the hills and fields astride Tex — a giant, almost black Percheron. Over many years, he and I have had a special friendship, and have...