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A Sensual Education
Friday May 14, 2010
Twenty-five years ago this spring, I cut a deal with Mr. X, an English teacher at my boarding school to clean his campus apartment once a week for five dollars an hour. This was something of a stunt on my part: I needed the money; I had a mild crush on him. In a boarding school where faculty members’ personalities and quirks were the subjects of everyday public gossip—he was a poet, divorced from another teacher at the school who’d....
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Evaluation
Thursday May 13, 2010
I know a few things about myself. One is that I’m an excellent teacher. I don’t know this because my students tell me they love me all the time, which they do. And then follow me around the green campus like disciples. I know I’m an excellent teacher because there are moments when the spirit seizes and I....
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The Competition
Wednesday May 12, 2010
Growing up, I loathed team sports—dreaded them, despised them, avoided them at all costs. Turning bars I could do; hopscotch I managed; elaborate make-believe involving creatures living under the redwoods in the corner of the lower school playground I excelled at. But the games—Steal the Bacon, Red Rover, Nation Ball—filled me with....
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The Solidarity of Tears
Tuesday May 11, 2010
Fatherhood made me a better pediatrician. I lost the dogmatism found in textbooks. I gained first-hand acquaintance with the anxious fear of parents whose child is suddenly ill or vulnerable. And I learned over and again the first, most important lesson of parenthood: you are not in control. Fatherhood also lent my advice needed....
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I of the Storm
Monday May 10, 2010
Even as I write this, residents in and around Nashville, in my home state, are suffering from recent floods. Some are temporarily displaced, some have lost their homes for good, some are mourning family members and friends. All because of rain—rain that came hard and came fast, causing the Cumberland River to crest its banks. When I tell people....
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Current Issue
Issue 71
Fiction by Larry Woiwode, interview with Joe Henry, art by Fabian Debora, essay by Barry Moser.
Good Letters: The Image Blog
