Lori Duff Writes
I was in a cab[1] going from the airport to my hotel. The driver was a friendly guy, asking me about my trip, where I was from. He pointed out several local landmarks along the way, and made suggestions about restaurants and side trips. I chittered back at him, doing my best to hold up…
My life is fairly stressful. I know, I know. I’m not alone. We’ve all got our stuff to worry about. Health, family, jobs, burnout, money, politics, sports teams behaving as their million dollar salaries would justify…there are plenty of things to get your stress hormones pumping for. Which is why, those three and a half…
War has got to be the stupidest way imaginable to resolve disputes. I mean, think about it. If you had two six-year-olds on a school playground arguing about whose turn it was on the swings, and the argument got heated and one of them threw a punch and they ended up on the ground, what…
I saw La Boheme at the Atlanta Opera the other night.[1] La Boheme, by Giacomo Puccini[2] is one of the most popular operas and likely, even if you hate opera, some of it would sound familiar to you. Like most operas, the plot is stupid. Here it is in a cynical nutshell: four young men…
I got my nails done the other day, which I’m sure you don’t care about because, well, why would you. But it makes a good prelude to my point, so bear with me. I am deep at my core a straight arrow, so my acts of rebellion come out in small, harmless gestures like getting…
My son, who was born almost three weeks early and a scant six and a half pounds, is graduating from college in May. His plan is to go on and get his master’s degree, a plan I am in favor of. Being a Big Boy, he has done all his applications and whatnot with no…
In 1675, Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” What this means is several things. One, that by quoting people who have been dead for over three hundred years you don’t have to worry about copyright violations. And two, if a certifiably inarguable genius…
I remember being in my early twenties and becoming aware of how much larger the world was than the one my parents had showed me. I wanted to see all the things. I wanted to see them now. I feared nothing greater than that one or more thing might occur without me witnessing it. I…
In first grade, we did a science experiment where we turned ordinary looking beans into bam-wham-zam! plants. Those plants, you might be surprised to learn, grew long string beans on them that contained—will wonders never cease—beans that looked exactly like the beans we started with. The circle of life, boys and girls, a whole two…
One day I will be dead, and I find this a comfort. Part of that is the oft-told, off-color joke, “I’ll rest when I’m dead.” And part of that is a reminder: the Earth turned for a long long time before me and it will continue to turn a long long time after me. There…