“Yesterday’s tomorrow is today,” is a line from the poem Bygones, written by the late Marina Keegan. Keegan died tragically in a car crash on her way to celebrate her father’s 55th birthday in 2012. She had just graduated college and was set to begin what was to be a promising career as writer at The New Yorker.
The poem is largely a reflection on a future she would never experience.…
As spring is peaking around the corner, many universities – including one at which I teach have gone on break. These week-long vacations from school are intended to be restorative; an opportunity for students and faculty to recharge their batteries before coming back to finish their semester strong.
Some will board planes seeking sunnier destinations and dispositions – after a winter of our collective discontent.
Rather than boarding a plane for a week, I instead drove to the beach for less than an hour.…
Pay. Give. Hold. Demand. Undivided, Limited. Deficit.
All words associated with our attention. Often parts of phrases clamoring to receive some amount of it. The words have an air of desperation to them. Presumably underscoring how difficult a task it is to receive it for any length of time.
The poet, Mary Oliver, wrote frequently of our attention. Imploring us to pay more attention to the natural world around us.…
I developed a new-found appreciation for Yacht Rock, after watching this documentary that talked about the musicianship of groups like Steely Dan, Toto and The Doobie Brothers. I had no idea of their jazz underpinnings or their profound influence on so many other groups and music.
Similarly, while I had heard of the storytelling organization The Moth and listened to one or two of their stories over the years, I now have a new-found interest in their work after reading the book The Moth Presents A Point in Beauty True Stories of Holding on and Letting Go.…
Children filed in. Quietly taking seats on padded cushions on the auditorium floor. Hundreds of tiny faces looking up at me – a children’s book author who once sat where they are now.
Returning to the elementary school which was the inspiration for my latest book, I told them stories about my time there, being the new kid, and learning to play kickball. I read my book to them and answered their questions – ranging from cute to astute.…
Here is a sampling of things I’ve heard from students of all ages this week:
“We had to read a book and if we felt like putting it down because it was boring, we were told that it was a sign that the class wasn’t for us.”
“I was told that my portfolio wasn’t good enough so I shouldn’t apply to art school.”
“We were told that every student was going to fail this test.”…
The familiar picture frame stopped me in my tracks. Reading, “#1 Dad” it was in an exhibit called “Many Voices, One Nation” at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It sat there with a collection of other items including a toothbrush, comb and glass case. All united by the fact they were found in the desert, forgotten on someone’s journey north from Mexico into America.
I wonder how many father’s over the course of our two-hundred forty-eight year history felt like a #1 Dad for taking extraordinary chances and journeys in the hopes of providing a better life for their family.…
She approached me with a four inch stack of index cards, asking if I would help her study for her upcoming Earth Science midterm. My middle daughter had created what had to be over two hundred flashcards to help prepare herself for her exam and over the course of the last week had repeatedly reviewed them. It was both astonishing and impressive to see her mow through these cards with such precision and accuracy.…
This weekend two million students who attend land-grant universities returned from Thanksgiving break. A few short days later will mark the end of Native American Heritage month.
I suspect that most of these students, like I once was until recently, are oblivious to the connection.
A few years ago, I was granted the opportunity and honor to give the commencement address at my alma mater, Penn State University. …
This week, students in my Creative Team Dynamics class each had to perform an improv scene with their partner for two minutes. Prompts and the accompanying emotion were generated randomly by this website.
Having run this exercise many times before, I was taken by how well the students performed. The basic rules of improv are to agree with the opening statement and to build on each other’s comments using a “yes, and” framework. …
In class this week, I asked my students to sit across from their partner, in silence, and just stare at each other for two minutes straight. During this time, they should be aware of any distractions that pop into their mind that might distract them from the task at hand. Simply staring at the person across from them.
This exercise, popular in acting circles, is designed to help people be present and observant.…
The word “news” has been around since at least the 1500’s. The word “newsworthy” was only coined in 1890. The inference being people decided a new word was necessary as much of what was being shared as “news” was not particularly worthy.
I have for the last two years largely taken a hiatus from the daily news. Previously my days began and ended with a dose of it. …
Years ago I read about an Oakland school that was having increasing issues with student behavior. Fights and disruptions would break out with regularity and teachers were struggling to create an atmosphere conducive to learning.
The proposed solution was simple. Give the kids a break.
Many of the children were carrying to school not just their backpacks but the stress and trauma from difficult circumstances in their homes and neighborhoods.…
This is the fifty-second newsletter I’ve shared this year. The other fifty-one can be found here.
In addition, I’ve shared eight PBS podcast episodes, two NPR special programs, including Seeing Erin Hagerty – which may be the best thing I’ve made in a while
I’ve shared four published articles, including this one for Parents about how to talk to your kids about class
I’ve shared with my publisher drafts of my next two children’s books.…
I love books. Reading them, owning them, sharing them and obviously writing them. The smell of an old book is a reminder of all those who have similarly valued the words born out of another’s mind. The feel of a new book ushers in the anticipated value to be delivered in small doses over the weeks you will spend reading it.
I have always thought of owning a bookstore.…
I have always considered myself a luddite – slow to adopt new technology, warning against its potential downside. Yet here I sit, typing on my MacBook Pro, Apple Watch strapped to my wrist as my iPhone plays music through a bluetooth SONOS speaker. All after another evening ended with my ass firmly planted in my couch watching mindless television wirelessly projected onto my wall.
Lamenting our use of technology is not particularly helpful.…
My children have always loved back-to-school shopping. There is something about the idea of having a list of school supplies and wandering through a stationary store checking off boxes that brings them a strange combination of excitement and satisfaction.
As a writer I can identify with the love of pencils, paper and such.
So there we were scuffling through Staples searching for the perfect sized post it notes or a pencil case that was both stylish (one picked out a furry cat – rather kitschy) and functional (dividers or pockets seem key.)…
Marcel Proust once wrote, “The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is…”
He is writing about the role artists play in society in a chapter perhaps appropriately named, The Prisoner.…
As July 4th approached, I was reflecting on the state of our country. JFK’s famous exhortation from his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for our country,” popped into my mind.
In lieu of recent events, one could look at the first part of that quote and conclude that what little we have asked for from our country has been denied.…
Last year, I was honored to deliver the commencement address at my alma mater, Penn State. It was held in Beaver Stadium, where over 100,000 fans stream in each Saturday during football season.
The students graduating that day would go out into an uncertain world. A pandemic still wore on, the country and specifically their state was deeply divided.
Yet they were graduating with a college degree and into a strong job market.…
It was an especially hectic weekend. On top of the standard travel soccer chaos, there was also a band/chorus concert and tech week for one of my daughter’s theater groups. All of this was compounded by the fact that my wife was away on a well-deserved, but ill-timed, girls’ weekend. I was flying solo.
We had managed the first three days quite well, due in large part to some good planning and even better temperament from my three daughters. A…
This week as part of an Earth Science’s assignment, my daughter has to go outside and observe the phases of the moon. Once she’s found it in the night sky, she is to draw what she’s seen. Over time, she is expected to see the various waxing and waning phases and presumably draw some conclusions.
On a few occasions, she’s asked me to go outside and see the moon with her, which we’ve thoroughly enjoyed.…
It was a wonderful week of music in my home.
My children fell in love with a new song (“On My Way” by Jennifer Lopez), that went into heavy rotation and led to many sing alongs.
I interviewed Darryl McDaniels from Run DMC for my podcast, who reminded me that “music can do what politics and religion can’t – unite us.”
Finally, I had my first guitar lesson in three years.…
In her 2018 memoir, Educated, Tara Westover, shared her incredible life story. She told of being raised by survivalist parents who did not permit her to go to school or see a doctor. In spite of it all and the accompanying trauma, she went on to go to Brigham Young University (her first class there was her first experience in a classroom) and then on to Oxford University and ultimately becoming a bestselling author.…
Two weeks ago, I was one of over fifty children’s book authors who participated in the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. It was incredible to see so many children and their families demonstrating their love of books. While signing books and seeing a kid’s face light up is an unimaginably cool experience, the best part of the day came when a teacher, who had traveled the whole way from Hershey, Pennsylvania, approached me with a small gift and important story. …
