Ways of Seeing: I wear your dress sometimes

Reviewing the history of the dress that my mother made, I realized the perils of taking our rights and freedoms for granted.

The warming of our world didn’t seem so bad when it meant I could actually get ripe tomatoes before the first frost. Now it’s clear it means much more. It means ticks, flash flooding, landslides

Now that I have dragged you into a sphere of angst, let me tell you something else. Right now, I am experiencing the most delicious and enchanting of summers.

I’m bored. This constant refrain during the long unstructured summer vacations of my youth has somehow turned into a phrase people will do anything to avoid.

Most mornings, I step out the back door to check the weather, coffee mug in hand. Inevitably something in my garden beds cannot be left another minute.

In a dimly lit theater in Scotland, a liquid female voice, piped through the intercom, says: “Please keep your cell phone on at all times, so we can track you at any moment.”

Shortly after landing my first teaching job, I viewed an exhibit of “Planets” by glass artist Josh Simpson. Each piece was a globe infused with a world of organic forms.

I challenge anyone to come up with a widespread student movement that was not proved morally correct over time, even if it was vilified by college administrations and the news media while it was happening.

I’d spent far too many hours scrolling through news items, podcasts, emails, and other missives that had at bottom the same message: This country is in trouble. I don’t disagree.

Middlebury used to be a place where you could get things fixed instead of buying new. It was a time before nearly everything came from chains or big box stores or was delivered at the door.

On a cold, grisly Saturday, my husband and I had the joy of attending Grandparent’s Day at the Quarry Hill School. The warmth, light and laughter inside the building was a welcome contrast to the chaotic weather outside.

It is the big Christmas concert at my junior high school. A young soloist with a piano accompaniment is just finishing the first verse of “O Holy Night,” her sweet voice soaring. Suddenly, massed choruses and the orchestra with deeply resonating tympanies … (read more)

Life is challenging right now. And I don’t mean just the price of eggs. Every day the news is filled with stories we never thought could happen outside a history book or a dystopian novel.

While I was not writing this article that is due imminently, I carried out some research on procrastination to delay actually writing it. Turns out people have studied this phenomenon, and the general idea is that there are two categories: passive procras … (read more)

I implore you — my neighbors — to show up for each other in whatever way you can and to avoid judging others because they may not choose to engage the way that you do right now.