Split Self

Several years ago, my mother gave me a t-shirt with a saying on it: When my gut says, “No,” my mouth says, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Mother’s observation proved more and less useful: more because upon occasion I did have two minds, one thinking and the other speaking,...

Big Ed

The first time I met Big Ed, he was standing in the high-ceilinged front room of his home, an old plantation turned Victorian farmhouse in southern Virginia. A bear of a man, he turned my nice-to-meet-you handshake into a warm hug. Keith had told his parents that I...

Play

Last week, I brought home 5 flats of vinca major, a couple of sweet-scented viburnum shrubs, a butterfly bush, an assortment of herbs – mint, oregano, rosemary, thymes and sage – and bags of soil prep. Keith helped with the heavy lifting – two truckloads – and...

Perfect Fools

“Why Do Fools Fall in Love” – the song asked those who do. “What Kind of Fool Am I” – posed the question for one who did not. What kind of fool am I who falls in love with the perfect family myth? Baby Boomers like me grew up watching Leave it the Beaver, Father Knows...