So I can’t help– being here– thinking about writing all the time. Which is a nice change for me since, as I think I’ve said before, my mind is generally occupied with something Other. Just now I attended a seminar called “Fooling the Watcher: How to Write when You’re Scared to Write.” And I know […]

I attended a seminar this morning on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. It is popular these days in academia to champion Dickinson as a heretic, someone who saw through the failures of Puritanism and Calvinism and rejected Christian faith. Well, none of us can know how true that is, any more than any of us […]

“Are you a writer?” The question was appalling. It was invasive. I hated it. I would have rather she’d asked me about my sex life, or my political views. Anything but that. But why should I not expect such a question? We are attending the Festival of Faith and Writing, for crying out loud. All […]

I almost bailed this late afternoon. I very nearly did. After working hard on academic stuff for Duke all afternoon, after homeschooling my children all morning, after a quick errand in between to Target, the tasks yet before me were still far from complete. I was rushing to prepare dinner so that we could make […]

My son William received a three-page letter in the mail yesterday. All three were written in pencil on notebook paper; the first page was ripped and torn all around the edges. It is basically an invitation for a playdate, and the sender is one of William’s best friends. Having obtained permission from William, the sender, […]

When I went to the interview all those many years ago, I was pushing a four-month old baby in her stroller. She was quiet throughout; if I remember correctly, she began to fuss just a very little bit at the end, but it was, after all, time for lunch. They told me then that the […]

This post was supposed to be my reward for work accomplished. “If I get it done,” I told myself, “then I will post that Something to my blog.” But I don’t have the work done. Despite Serious Time with my notes before me, despite re-reading whole chapters and large sections of di Lampedusa’s The Leopard […]

I’ve just spent some time surfing the web. I know this is an activity that many people engage in on a regular basis, but this is not something I am given to doing, so it is a bit of an adventure for me. In fact, the only reason I surf the web is because I’m […]

The blank brain with which I have been inflicted continues…. I’ve tried, mustering what few meager grey cells apparently remain to me, to figure out when… and how… and when. I know that class on Wednesday night was difficult. I, who have taught high school English for years, found myself absolutely confounded by my professor’s […]