One of the most striking features of soap operas is that the characters never seem to be scarred by their tragedies. They live through illnesses, miscarriages, adultery, multiple divorces, and deaths but, the next year, they move on seemingly unscathed. We’re willing to suspend disbelief because the fiction is so satisfying, so comforting, so unlike real life. (more…)

When my children were in elementary school, before they were called to the bus at the end of the day, they had DEAR time.  This meant “Drop Everything and Read.”  For twenty minutes, they were allowed to choose a book or magazine and lose themselves in reading. (more…)

 For our blended family, this has been a week of last minute changes.  One moment we were adding a Tuesday night to the kid’s usual schedule and the next we were subtracting a Tuesday and adding a Thursday.  Then we added a Monday, but that fell through at the last minute.  (more…)

That white fluffy powder – it just keeps coming down in New England.  We’ve had four school snow days in four weeks.  I gaze at the accumulating inches outside my window . . . .  and I think about how this frozen water, a neutral substance, takes on meaning to so many people.  (more…)