Ways of Seeing: Going backwards has its benefits

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.

With the threat of authoritarianism on the rise and daily news stories of one or another government agency being gutted by an unelected plutocrat, I am disturbed, but also aware that I can choose my emotional response. I will use my voice to express disap … (read more)

People love opposition. Whether it’s a school rivalry or a business competition, it doesn’t take much difference to turn things into “us v. them.” In fact, it doesn’t take any.

One of my first teaching positions was at a Montessori elementary school a block away from the United Nations. I was thrilled to land this job. The only hitch was my annual starting salary of $9,000. Studio apartments in that neighborhood ran around $1,50 … (read more)

We have just passed the Jewish holiday of Purim, a time to commemorate the story of Queen Esther, who saved the Jewish people by persuading her husband that his advisor, Haman, was not to be trusted. Haman had hatched a wicked plan to kill all the Jews in … (read more)

Like so many of us, anxiety for the future of our nation often haunts my sleep. I have nightmares of Trump’s Toadies and Musk’s Maggots crawling over the landscape, destroying everything I cherish as they go.

Unlike the divisive national political scene which gives me a stomachache and makes it hard for me to speak with my neighbor and another close friend, the Middlebury town meeting was like a gooey chocolate brownie to a sugar addict.

I’ve been a proud Vermonter for my entire life. I love the mountains, valleys, lakes, farms and my family history going back generations, but perhaps the thing I love most is our state motto: Freedom and Unity. In these times of intense division it helps … (read more)

As a small child, if I got hurt, one of my parents would tend to my injury. Then they would “kiss it to make it better.” Did a kiss actually fix my skinned knee? No, but it did help. I felt better with that kiss. If I got a shot at my doctor’s, they would … (read more)

In December my family took a trip to South Korea. I wanted to write about the amazing food, fantastic free museums, historic palaces and old neighborhoods, and the warm and friendly people we met. But something else happened while we were in Korea.