It was 1988 at the University of Nairobi, and Chinua Achebe was only three feet away from me when my cheeks prickled and blushed a deep red. I had read his work already, but his presence and his voice seemed to admonish me, personally, to "cultivate the habit...

My daughters were safely attending their respective schools when the news of the Connecticut shooting started hitting my iPhone. Feeling the same breathless anxiety that good people all over the world felt at getting this news, rants of confusion and despair swirled in my head and wishes for healing filled...

I dare you to say "Chaka Khan" without also saying, at least in your mind, "let me rock you, that's all I wanna do." If you were even remotely aware of popular culture in 1984, you know you can't do it! Most of us can also sing along to countless...

The last time I read The Glass Menagerie I was in high school, and I remember Laura's monologue about how she got the name "Blue Roses" as a popular choice for teen girls auditioning for drama club. Back then, I was sure the play was all about a put-upon young...

I'm a mother of teenage daughters, and we three feminists feel fortunate to have the versatile word "dude" to help us convey our reactions to the things we see men do.

Watch TV on our couch for very long, and someone will react to a male act of genius with...

As I write, I hope Amy Goodman is resting her autograph-signing hand and sipping on a latte en route to the plane that will take her from City #70 (Everett) to City #71 (Spokane) on her whirlwind book tour.

When I met her a few hours ago, she was...

My fondest memories of my teenaged driving years are filled with run-of-the-mill misadventures: speeding tickets and inadvisable numbers of passengers and minor collisions that I told myself just "added character" to the Pepto-Bismol-pink VW Bug I called Alice. I regularly ran her gas tank to empty; I had to enlist...

On a recent visit to Seattle's Pacific Science Center, I joined the crowds thronging to see the incredible display of historic Egyptian wealth at the King Tut exhibit. I gasped along with everyone else as I wandered among the gleaming gold artifacts, intricately styled by human...

In January, I wrote my first post here, reflecting on motherhood and the lessons I learn from the women who care for the 50 children at Cura Orphanage.

Now, seven months later, Dwyane Wade has reminded me to reflect on fatherhood, too.

I confess that I...

Like most people, when I want to get a superhero fix, I head to the movies. Nothing beats watching a complicated social misfit muster his resources and vanquish evil, on behalf of the safety and security of lesser mortals like me.

Yesterday, while listening to The Story,...

If my brothers had been there, we might have been able to learn more about the physics of the whole thing. Why some of the meteors seems to move more quickly than others, for example, or what made some seem to streak across the sky while others seemed to just...

Fact #1: If characters in Moonrise Kingdom pull out a container of Tang during a picnic scene, the adults in the audience will collectively emit a gasp of recognition.

Fact #2: When said adults react in such pleasurable surprise, your 15-year-old daughter will incredulously, and at...

Ever since Forrest Gump, I've been particularly cautious about metaphorical pronouncements about life, for fear that I'll be haunted forever after by the unintended hollowness of my observations. But I can't help reflecting on the rich figurative material in the sport-of-the-moment: paddleboarding.

Granted: this is not...

So far, I've seen only three of this year's Seattle International Film Festival offerings, and I'm likely only to get two more in before the spectacle wraps up next weekend. This is a shame, because not only have the films been excellent, they've afforded me yet another window...

If you read my "Easter at Amen Corner" post in April, you might have already guessed that I'm not a person of faith. At least not the formal, organized kind.

I do, however, have plenty of friends from faith traditions I don't share, and we find that a...

I have recently realized that my US passport might be my most essential possession -- especially as I get older and become more convinced that the only reason to earn a paycheck is to be able to buy plane tickets.

I think this philosophy anchors me firmly among a growing...

You might have heard already that President Obama visited my town last week. I confess that I didn't know much in advance that he was coming... I was just lucky. Lucky that I was trolling the Seattle Theater Group's website for 2012-2013 season tickets just in...

The mission of Leadership Snohomish County, a nonprofit group located just north of Seattle, Wash., is to educate and mentor local leaders so that our county can cultivate its own generations of problem-solvers and social justice workers. I graduated from the program last year, and I guess I...

I put my return (and not-insignificant check) in the mail to the IRS Friday, and I have to admit that I'm sad to see another tax season come to a close. I'm not saying I love paying taxes, but I am saying that I love doing taxes.

Please tell me...

I was in Augusta, Ga., this weekend, and Easter took second place only to The Masters in people's friendly greetings and small talk. I was, admittedly, in town because of the tournament, but I didn't attend -- I was merely accompanying my partner, Greg, on his bucket-list adventure....