A Merganser’s Master Guide to  Homeschooling

A Merganser’s Master Guide to Homeschooling

6:15 am, June 17, 2020Poland, MaineWhoosh! A loud fluttering sounded over the chorus of chirping birds that had already awakened me. Turning quickly to my right, I looked out the large picture window and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a duck in flight headed...
Are We Still Having “Fun”?

Are We Still Having “Fun”?

I spent a weekend in Manhattan back in the fall of 2018 with two old college friends: Leslie, a documentary filmmaker who’s lived in Paris for many years, and Bonnie, a recently-retired high school English teacher living on a cattle ranch in the Kansas Flint Hills and...
Watching My Trees Grow

Watching My Trees Grow

I like to think of them as my trees, two sibling white birches rising out of the bank of Thompson Lake in Poland, Maine. They arch towards the water, just a few yards beyond the screen porch from which I’ve watched them grow since their infancy. I probably shouldn’t...
A Boomer’s Defense of Millennials

A Boomer’s Defense of Millennials

As far as I’m concerned, Millennials get a bum rap. The criticisms Boomers and Gen Xers heap upon them have been well-chronicled: They don’t have the same work ethic “we” did; they expect to be pampered and given only “meaningful” work; they flit around from job to...
Books That Moved Us – Friends Write Back

Books That Moved Us – Friends Write Back

In my recent post listing a number of books I’ve read and loved over the past few years, I asked readers to recommend books that have moved them. In response I’ve gotten a bunch of recommendations, which couldn’t have come at a better time. Given that we’re all locked...