This was going to be a whole thing, to write more, these pens, everything, and it was all forgotten when Quinn came home for the rest of the summer. It just all went out the window. The window. Here I am though, at this window, looking down onto the busy shimmery pool, full of kids […]
Birthday #1
The Original Waterfire
Moira, Part 1
I am from Rhode Island. Haven Brothers, the oldest food truck in the country, is also from Rhode Island. Haven Brothers is famous among locals for being the only thing open in the middle of the night in downtown Providence, and it is a beacon after last call, bordering on a mecca, its greasy food […]
New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day
New Year’s Eve: Our 3rd annual burning of the Christmas tree. Flames 10, 15, 20 feet high; heat; crackling; kids and adults yelling—it lasts for roughly 2 minutes. We’ll do this until the neighbors call the cops on us. New Year’s Day: Our 5th annual First Day Hike, this time Mt. Tom in Holyoke, MA. […]
RIP Barry Dennen 1938–2017
Barry was a bit of an oxymoron. He was an incredibly sweet man who could be a royal PITA. He was a genuine, honest person—one of the most honest I’ve ever met, often to the point of bluntness (see PITA comment above)—who was also a caricature of himself. He was thoughtful and hilarious and serious […]
6 Perks of Being a Single Parent
Single parenthood is very difficult. I grew up with a single mom, and I am one now myself. The challenges are myriad and sometimes seemingly insurmountable. They are also almost entirely what you hear about, when you hear about single parents. There are joys to single parenthood, though, too; joys that are unknowable to parents […]
RIP Pauline Whitesinger, Navajo elder
Pauline Whitesinger died earlier this month. Grandma Pauline was my hero. A Navajo elder, she lived a traditional life on the Navajo reservation in what is known as Arizona. She lived a hard life–hard by our industrial-world standards, and made harder by the coal mining occupation to which she refused to concede. She stayed on […]
A good fire is based on oxygen
A good fire is based on oxygen; based on, if could be said, the spaces between, the absence. Absence is a funny thing, especially with regards to desire. Everything contains absence, nothing is completely present. So we always desire something we cannot (fully) have. Like the Lacan/Hegel catch-22: the desire for another’s desire (the only […]