“Estoy…um, how do you say ‘cold’?” Emmett asks. We are attempting a conversation in Spanish. “What are you trying to say?,” I inquire, as I bite into the street taco I brought back to our heavily air conditioned hotel room in Mexico City. “I’m cold.” “Cold is frio. But it’s *tengo* frio. Not *estoy* frio.”

It is Yom Kippur — the holiest day of the Jewish years.  I’m in my backyard. In a tent.  Fasting.  Contemplating. It’s my practice.   The dogs tell me and repeat: “Clear and present danger at the front door. Clear and present danger at the front door.”    I unzip, go through the house, and

Teaching with Heart The score that the tenth graders get the first time they take something called the CAHSEE—a California-issued standardized test—determines the amount of state funding the school as a whole receives. The pressure, created by bureaucrats who have no idea what actually goes into a school, is crippling on this school filled with

    Moments ago—this very evening—immediately after flipping up the switch for our bedroom lights, I thought, “That overhead light is too bright.”   Never in my life before had I had that particular thought.   I’d heard Jane say it. Many times.In many situations.  It’s just that I’d never thought it.   In fact,

Learning to learn and learning to learn about love “Fist, Thumb, Fingers, Pinky.” “Fist, Thumb, Fingers, Pinky.” “Fist, Thumb, Fingers, Pinky.” “Fist, Thumb, Fingers, Pinky.” I say each word—Fist, Thumb, Fingers, Pinky—as I put that part of my right hand at the edge of the table. Students start doing it along with me. I continue,

Seeing God — American Airline flight 1849 from CLT to PDX. There’s a man sitting in the seat across the aisle from me. He is wearing athletic shorts, a short sleeve t-shirt, and Giorgio Armani Collection glasses with matte nickel frames. He just keeps talking and talking to the woman in the seat on the

Name: Email:   The phrase “Time heals all wounds” is attributed to the Greek poet Menander (300 BCE). He was half right.  Time is a component of healing.  But healing does not happen with time alone. Healing requires both time and attention.  *** Something traumatic recently happened to me in Harmony, North Carolina. And, because

Son, When I asked you to “close all the windows” after using my office computer, I was not referring to the glass and wood, three-paned window situated above the large Acer 45” monitor. No, I was talking about the full-page, Google chrome windows you opened on the large display and were using to watch Breaking

My friend.   I often refer to the person or people with whom I’m talking as *my friend* or “my friends.”   I like that it proposes the relationship I desire to have.   I see truth in the saccharine phrase attributed to both poets Guest and Yeats, “There are no strangers here. Only friends