“Yes,” by Denise Duhamel
Reading “Yes,” we get a real sense of commitment to making a marriage work and, maybe more importantly, of the sense that this is not just a tedious chore. Real affection, and humor, lighten the touch here.
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Food Wars: The Struggle for Healthy Eating
The past ten years have seen an explosion of interest in and controversy about just what comprises healthy eating. As a result, new diets and regimes abound.
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Yes, You Can Go Back…To School
"What one course did you not take in college, but wish you did?" Take a look at some of the — free — courses available online.
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“Tennessee June,” by Jorie Graham
The poem makes its political point lightly, touching on it and then moving immediately into a lyricism that steers the poem back into more personal—and universal—concerns.
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The Covid Marriage
The enforced togetherness required by social distancing has led couples to spend more time together than usual, a lot of it. And even for those that have strong, solid relationships, it’s been, well, a bit more than they’d like.
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New Documentary Shines Loving Light
On ‘A Secret Love’
There is nothing but respect and genuine affection in 'A Secret Love.' If anything, the film evokes a sense of admiration and wonder for any couple that can maintain the love and sense of sheer joy for and about each other.
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The Lummi Nation: How a Native American Community Prepared for the COVID-19 Pandemic
I have been following the success of the Lummi Nation, a Native American community, two hours from Seattle, Washington. They are a model of how a community dealt with and contained the virus quickly.
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“The Laughter of Women,” by Lisel Mueller
"Poetry, for me, is the answer to how does one stay sane when private lives are being ransacked by public events," Lisel Mueller explained to an interviewer after 'Alive Together: New and Selected Poems' won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize.
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‘The Assistant,’ A Riveting #MeToo Horror Movie
'The Assistant' follows a junior assistant as she tries to expose her boss and his reign of sexual terror. What happens is more disturbing. Because, what happens is . . . nothing.
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Managing More than Your Mood in the Time of COVID
I spoke to dozens of people who were willing to share how they are changing their lives in positive ways, consciously choosing to improve their mood, physical health, and their intellectual, cultural and spiritual lives.
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Review: Ledger by Jane Hirshfield
Ledger’s poems take stock of the losses—both personal to this speaker and in the larger sense of our world’s ever-diminishing resources and species—and do so with a mounting sense of crisis.
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Man’s Search for Meaning
The most helpful insight of Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
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Streaming Options: Celebrating Our (Feminist) Roots
We have access to an unprecedented volume of home entertainment—with options that celebrate the rich history of women.
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The COVID Revolution
In spite of the horror of disease, death, and economic havoc that has come from the COVID-19 pandemic, I have hope that a COVID Revolution can produce lasting change that will benefit many.
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Three poems from Indigo by Ellen Bass
With a keen sense of humor that acknowledges how even our saddest moments can offer levity, Ellen Bass offers comfort and assurance in these poems, always leading us back from the brink of intense emotion with wisdom and care.
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Book Review: Clara Bingham Captures Complexity of ‘the Sixties’
'Witness to the Revolution' is an important book that will be a reference point for years to come in the effort to understand one of the most complex periods in our nation’s history. Clara Bingham has captured it like a photograph of lightning just as it strikes.
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In ‘Unorthodox,’ A Hasidic Woman Finds Her Voice
What makes 'Unorthodox' markedly different is that, although clearly taking Esty's side, the miniseries never ridicules or criticizes the Hasidim. In fact, it reverently, almost lovingly, depicts what is sacred and beautiful about the people and their traditions.
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One World Together: At Home
The stay at home orders exist to allow the healthcare system to recover even while the economy suffers. Many people around the world understand that the sacrifices we make—economically, socially and emotionally—to stay home, is for the common good.
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“Small Kindnesses,” by Danusha Laméris
Maybe the best way we can all help now is to stay calm and focused on the goal of emerging from seclusion into a healthier climate in a few weeks or months. And, when we do go out or otherwise interact with others, to be kind and to treat everyone with an extra level of compassion and respect. That’s why “Small Kindnesses” is an important poem to feature this week.
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Elizabeth Strout’s Luminous Short-Story Collection, ‘Anything Is Possible’
Interrelated stories by the most acute observer of human behavior writing fiction today.
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Explore the World’s Best Art Museums Online
It may be weeks or even months before we can visit art museums again. Until then, exploring these magnificent collections online is the next best thing.
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What Easter Can Teach Us About Hope
In the Time of COVID-19
Today is Day 81 since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the US. We are certainly in the depths of the wilderness. Yet, we are learning to find hope.
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Rachel Hadas: “Love and Dread”
Today’s poem does not call for an eradication of dread, though it does lament its existence. Dread plays a necessary role in human life, and the poem seems to acknowledge it as the yin to love’s yang, the dark to the light side of the moon, despair’s counterpart to hope.
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Book Review: “How Hard Can It Be?”
by Allison Pearson
Allison Pearson’s knack for finding the humor as well as the pathos in midlife storms is what makes her writing such a pleasure.
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