Because of the authority with which words like "clinical depression" or "bipolar" are used in modern conversation, they are given the impression that those words have a permanence and solidity they do not actually have.

What is home, anyhow? I was lonesome for Europe for 30 years after returning to the States. Finally I am back here. Sometimes it's hard, but sometimes it's glorious. What does it matter when or where we die?

Women aren't the only ones who feel the loss when the "baby" grows up, goes to college and moves out of the house. Fathers do too. I'm already feeling the empty-nest syndrome.

My conversation with Julie Kraut on her new book dealing with the nearly universal camper affliction: homesickness.