When I was little, one of the things I most loved to do with my father was go to the gas station. A child of the early 1900s, he called it the "filling station" and he always made sure that he had at least a half tank of gas. He...

Every year at this time I meet the holidays with an Andy Rooney attack that comes on a lot like gout. It begins with the first Kay Jewelers ad. And expands with the Lexus sporting the big red bow in the driveway. Then it snowballs with the slender young mommies...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about power. How we assign it. How we meet it. How we merge with it. And also how we judge it, fear it and run from it. I'm not talking about social power or financial power or physical power. I'm talking about personal power....

So -- zeitgeist being the social tattle-tale that it is, I admit that I recently succumbed to the book phenomenon of, yes... Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm fascinated by the collective We and what We want to read. I once wrote an essay that I never dreamed would get published...

As seen on THESE HERE HILLS

Sometimes I wonder if the divorce rate would be so high if we could make a questionnaire for our love interests to fill out before we step into the abyss of a serious relationship. I'm not talking about a Match.com sort of...

I know my way around uncertainty. Namely in the form of marital crisis. I wrote an essay and a memoir about a particular season of my life in which my husband wanted out of the marriage. I felt that he was in a deeper crisis of...

I have had my share of Christmas trees fall down in my forty-five years. Lost balloons. Fallen souffles. Cancelled flights. Burnt toast. Tough meat. Lemon cars. I wouldn't call myself unlucky. Quite the opposite, in fact. But I can say that the butterflies of Christmases past have sort of flown...

As seen on These Here Hills

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago with a central square flanked by shoulder-to-shoulder shops in brick and tudor. A fountain on one end, a Parthenon-shaped department store on the other, a park with grass and benches and a flagpole in...

For 13 years I had one consistent role and I performed it well. It's been my primary area of expertise and with it I have molded social groups and inspired movers, shakers, and decision makers. I've given sustenance to the thirsty, hungry, sick, needy and taught the illiterate to read...

In the face of adversity, people throw this phrase around: That which does not kill you makes you stronger. It's supposed to be one of empowerment. But to me it's not empowering at all. It's a hopeless, helpless statement, as if we have to go to the edge in order...

Every so often, in the course of my life, someone has looked at me sideways and said these helpful words: "What is wrong with you?" Ever been asked that question? There really isn't an answer to it because it's not a question. It's a judgment, an insult, an attack. But...

If you ask a kid these days what's the number one issue they hear about in school, they'll usually say bullying. Then they might follow it with the school acronym. Around here it's: P.R.I.D.E. (personal responsibility is a...

In the video I posted over the weekend, David Foster Wallace talks about how our society doesn't value the art of being quiet. He says we don't take an hour to look at a painting; we don't sit all day with a book. We are uncomfortable with mind challenges in...

Recently, I asked my Facebook friends to share their favorite all time book. Here are those unedited results, in the order in which they arrived. Not sure if any of these is what you might call "beach reading," but it's one helluva list. Reads like a poem. Enjoy! And let...

Every year Memorial Day gets a little easier. My father died on this day, May 31st, seven years ago. He would have been an old man by now. He would have been miserable. He couldn't stand it that his 86-year-old body wouldn't let him skim down the stairs at the...

My mother always says, "Once a mother, always a mother."

Growing up, I never really liked the sound of that. I thought it was sort of Bates Motel. What would I want with a mother breathing down my neck when I was an adult? Telling me what she thought...

You may have read my essay about my marital crisis in the New York Times Modern Love column in August of 2009 called "Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear" or possibly read my memoir, "This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness" (Amy...

Borders is bankrupt. You can read the facts as reported by the Wall Street Journal here.

People are crawling out of the woodwork with opinions. I'm not one of them. I'm not sure what to think.

A recent article in the New York Daily News berated the...

Munson:

I have to believe that the notion and experience of love is not gender specific, nor culture specific. I wrote a book about what happened when my husband told me he didn't love me anymore and wasn't sure he ever did. In my case, I didn't believe him and...

Tom Matlack, stay-at-home dad:

Not only are stay-at-home dads macho, but all dads who show up for their kids are macho. You can't be a dad and wall yourself off from your child. Perhaps that was the way in prior generations, but one of the greatest changes for men today...