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The Way I Was
Last September, on the Saturday night before my wedding, I went to Leslie’s house to watch The Way We Were. Leslie is one of my best friends, a friend since we grew up down the street from one another, and one week later would stand up for me as my matron-of-honor. This is ritual for us: the movie we’ve gravitated to as a touchstone since it first came out, in 1973, when we were in junior high....
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The Helicopter Has Landed
What’s wrong with this picture? A Sunday afternoon in March, sun breaking through the clouds and casting onto the wall. Last week’s roast chicken simmering into stock on the stove. Craig at his desk, typing up the selection for lectio divina at the weekly meeting of our Benedictine group. My nephew in a club chair, his feet on the ottoman, reading a local weekly over a bowl of soup. And me? On the couch....
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Untested
Examination. The word calls to mind blue books, Scantron forms, the classic anxiety dream of showing up late and unprepared. We pass or we fail, with consequences either way. By definition, examinations are intrusive, scrutinizing, assessing, often rigorous, always quantifying what you know and what you don’t. So why wouldn’t the word make me nervous? And yet, I like tests because they show me where....
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Following
Authority makes me uncomfortable. Not because I chafe at it, but because I recognize my own susceptibility to those who point to the wilderness or the inner rooms, to those who, rightly or wrongly, wear the mantle of knowing something I don’t. That’s not something I like to admit, and I can’t readily identify the source of my impulse to be the good girl, to be patted on the head for compliant behavior, even when....
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Playing it Safe
I’ve been having trouble starting this post. All week, I’ve been eyeing the item on iCal—blog post due to Greg Wolfe—and moving on. Not in the mood. No ideas. My last one hasn’t run yet, so I have some time. Et cetera. This morning I read Sara Zarr on Advent and Caroline Langston on Christmas with Satan. Caroline’s title alone made me shiver, first at the adversary’s name, and second, in admiration, especially as I kept....
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Current Issue
Issue 72
Memoir by Lauren Winner, Poetry by James Harpur, Art by Guy Chase and Adrian Wiszniewski
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