Fluffy self-help memes and open talk about anxiety may be irritating to some people, but the truth is, I don’t give a shit. Shame leads to silence, and silence can kill. When I was 5 years old, I was terrified of admitting that I couldn’t finish the gelatinous beef stew we summer program kids had […]
If you believe in soul mates, you stay with the one you think is yours, no matter how bad it gets, because the alternative is too desolate to contemplate. When I was 16 years old, I found a battered copy of The Bridge Across Forever at my favorite used bookstore. It was on the New […]
Perfection is the archenemy of productivity and happiness. For many years, I wrote mostly in my head. I might spend an entire day or even a week formulating a single sentence, turning the words over in my mind like agates in a tumbler until they came out gleaming and smooth, ready at last to be committed to […]
While 30- and 40-something moms were having it out with their daughters over makeup and risque dresses, my mom was going through menopause. When I was 10 years old, my mother aged an entire decade in one night. It remains one of the single most shocking episodes of my childhood—which was really very tame, I […]
