I raised my child in a shopping mall. Not the kind of my youth: An enclosed, 1980’s dark-floored cave with a Spencer’s and The Limited, Orange Julius and Chick-Fil-A; a constant fountain whooooooshing in the background. No, this shopping mall is a modern, outdoor arrangement with a small fountain in…

When there’s more than one — “I don’t want them to go. Seriously. I love them to death. But once they are gone, won’t it be kind of nice to have fewer complications, fewer interruptions?” These are the things you say before they go, before they’re gone. Up until the second it happens, their leaving is…

Follow these rules, and no matter how bad the fall, you’re a winner — My wife drops me off at work in the morning, and most of the time it’s nice. We kiss. We sigh. We offer our traditional farewells: “Let’s quit our jobs and run away to other jobs and quit those and run away forever!” But it wasn’t nice last Monday morning. …

Looking back on what might have been, and what never was — I would have made a great mom. My heart aches for helpless creatures. Pass me a newborn. I will never put her down. I know from experience that I can hold a screaming, flailing baby all night long and manage to hide my frazzled nerves. …

The act of teaching — the art of teaching — could not be more crucial for the maintenance of our culture — A few years ago, not long before the pandemic began, I made the decision to stop teaching and become a full-time writer. I was a little hesitant to give up my affiliation with the university and its creative writing program, but I also knew I was done. I had reached…

An ode to my very first bucket of bolts — In 1992, my dad went down to the garage where my grandfather was the shop manager and bought me a used vehicle that would eventually be known as “Loretta.” The photo above is not my truck, of course. Mine was black, not navy, and my tires were chunky off-roaders, not…

During the hardest year of my life, I only shared my two biggest accomplishments — In 2018, this is what I posted on my Facebook timeline: April 22: Victory! May 24: Happiness!