grace remembering

Walking across campus, 14-year-old Grace had a moment of recognition as we passed by the short, steel posts that prevent traffic from heading down pedestrian paths. “That’s where we would get our clues.” It took…

learning an American Tune

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered. I don’t have a friend who feels at ease. I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees. Oh, but…

capable of anything

Maybe the place to start is to publicly thank Donald Trump for providing a case study and an example of what it means to be a thoughtful human being. But you might get the wrong…

coyote of Telegraph Hill

Note: I’ve been assembling a list of drafts of things that, for my own sense of forward progress, I need to make sense of and move into the foreground. For now, I have this, an…

on a walk

It’s been a few days since I’ve made it out of the mountains, and I’m still working to make sense of it. It would be strained to suggest that there was some well-defined purpose for…

bee learning

When Grace and I got into the house and took off gear, the protective veil from around her head and the screen-hooded coat from my body, we heard the familiar sound of a single stowaway….

a feel for learning

When Grace gave up horse riding a year ago, we went through a period of mourning with a dash of trauma added for flavor. Who our child is, or was, or was going to be,…

exam space

7:25 AM. I step in through the upper door and walk down the steps of the lecture hall. The metal door slams behind me to the dark morning, shuddering in the frame. Students are already assembled…