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The time I banished my daughter to homelessness

I banished my daughter to homelessness. I didn’t feel bad about it. In fact, I felt quite adult. Sydney lived for years between two houses. She stayed with her mother most of the time and then with me every Tuesday and every other weekend. When she lived with me, we first…

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On wordless days

Some days I don’t have the gumption or the inspiration to write. Such times make me feel useless, ineffective at doing what I love to do. Today was such a day until just a minute ago. I left home early today to come out to the college. I always feel…

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Trout fishing in myself

Some books have provided me priceless revelations. W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge turned on something fundamental in me. Larry Darrell’s traveler/loner appealed to me and let me understand that the things he was seeking—humility and egalitarian democracy in his own life—I was looking for myself. In Catch-22, Joseph Heller…

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The first day of the rest of your semester

The first day in the classroom went well, as far as I can see. I didn’t have much planned. Like all other things in life, I planned to fly it as it came. I didn’t have a lecture prepared. I didn’t have a class plan. Only the syllabus, which is…

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Bill the Flying Cat, or How to skin a cat hater

Some days I’d like to strangle Bill the Flying Cat. Bill came to us in winter four years ago. He was a kitten who wound up on our porch when the temperature hovered around 3. His small stature and aloof personality attracted me. He had one eye that didn’t open…

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