My imagined contract with cockroaches
When I can’t write, I think of a word. Anything. I seek connections between seemingly unrelated events. I try to have faith. I reassure myself that it takes a while to get used to the darkness. I...
View ArticleMy coming of age as a hoarder
One chilly evening in February 2000, I came home from work and noticed a variety of shirts and pants draped over the metal fence in front of my apartment building. Some kind soul evidently had left out...
View ArticleFast Love in the Alhambra, Part 1
Ruminator’s note: This is part one of my short story about an impossible romance in an ancient part of Spain Early afternoon in Granada, and the air was electric with romance. Men and women on blind...
View ArticleFast Love in the Alhambra, Part 3
Ruminator’s note: Part three of my short story about forbidden romance in Spain. In part one (click here), Alice and Ed—10 years after divorce—accidentally meet through a dating service specializing in...
View ArticleA made-up conversation with my daughter
We were born under similar circumstances, you and I. Here’s what kicked things off, in both our cases: a growth. A couple of cells. They were hellbent on dividing. My story, the part most relevant to...
View ArticleA rare coming together of Hanukah and Christmas
On Saturday night, nine Catholics and three-and-a-half Jews – including me — will gather around our Christmas tree, also known as a Hanukah bush, unwrap presents, light the menorah, and recite two sets...
View ArticleA cynic’s search for greener pastures yields a hopeful sign
When my family and I moved upstate from Brooklyn fifteen years ago, our new hometown — Clifton Park — seemed like the country to me. Houses were spaced out on large wooded lots. Forests and farm fields...
View ArticleIn twilight of life, a centenarian finds her cause célèbre
Fran Shapiro was born in 1913, a year before World War I. Before radio stations. Three years before America’s first birth control clinic opened. The century “went by so fast, I have no idea where it...
View ArticleJust outside the path of totality
In the old days, people didn’t treat an eclipse like a party, or drive halfway across the country to greet it. They didn’t sign up for multi-day spiritual gatherings in advance. Or cram onto a cruise...
View ArticleThis age thing is getting, um, old
I used to think getting old was just a stage. My hair loss, for example, was bound to let up any day. My daughter would stop growing like a weed. My crow’s feet would smooth out and the aches in my...
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