school | Mostly Bright Ideas

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If Not Now, Where?

January 14, 2014

My father often interpreted the misfortunes of others by saying that the person was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’d explain that this could be a matter of either poor judgment or bad luck. “You could even be in the right place,” he’d say, “but at the wrong time.” I guess […]

I’ll Stay Home If I Want To

October 18, 2013

114

My son, who is nineteen, goes to a lot of parties. In fact, in any given three-month period, he goes to more parties than I’ve been to in my entire life. And so, he has stories to tell, because that’s really the primary reason for getting together with other people: to take note of all […]

Afterthoughts (Part 2)

September 16, 2013

If Hell was the bottom of existence, a fiery chasm where the despicable and the disobedient sank and settled and stayed forever, then Heaven was the top. Floating above the loftiest peaks and even the highest clouds, it was a place infused with yellow sunlight and immeasurable goodness. All interactions there were calm and devoid […]

Literally Confused

August 31, 2013

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One day, when I was old enough to comprehend the words, but still young enough to be impressionable and immune to sarcasm, my mother made a startling announcement to me. “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head,” she said. She may have been washing the dishes at the time, or ironing shirts, […]

People Everywhere

July 5, 2013

I peer out the window on a sunny July afternoon, scanning right and left, and covering the full semicircle within view. All is quiet, and still. The scene is unsettling, like a dream that’s disturbing for a reason you can’t quite identify. Two bicycles lie on their sides in the driveway next door. A basketball […]

New Town

December 16, 2012

One year, when I was in junior high school, I read in the local newspaper about a family in the next town. There had been a fire in the middle of the night. A major fire. Trucks and men and hoses had arrived, too late, from all over the county. It was the third week […]

Ringing in My Ears

October 31, 2012

The year was 1964, and the day had begun like most other days at my Catholic school. But the next thing I knew, we were all standing and filing out the door, row by row. I’m sure I had no idea where we were going, but it was the fourth grade and I had learned […]

Wondering What to Believe (Part 2)

September 25, 2012

My grandmother died on March 3rd, 1966. The event struck the family like a cue ball smacking hard against the pack, scattering everyone to distant parts of New York State, and then to the far reaches of the country. Heading northwest out of the Bronx, my immediate family began to adjust to the exotic landscape […]

Minor Indiscretions (Part 2)

June 21, 2011

Both second-grade classes were lined up along the side wall in the back of the church. Several nuns stood nearby, watching over us and offering whispered suggestions and reassuring looks. It was our First Confession, and we were all nervous. Each time the line lurched forward, I realized another soul had been bleached clean, but […]

Bringing Up Daughter

January 27, 2011

The age-old struggle for supremacy between father and daughter is not well understood. Few scholars have dared approach the subject, preferring to wade into less treacherous waters of study, such as the transmission of plague or the destructive results of being hit by lightning. I have not enjoyed the luxury of such gutless timidity. * […]