So the holiday season is over, and the reality of the New Year has landed upon us. The extreme emotions of Christmas, running the whole spectrum from exhilaration and joy to panic and angst, have finally subsided. Now we are faced with the emotional lull of the year’s early months, a time when the snow… Read more »
When I was growing up, I was taught to respect authority. I sat quietly in class, with my legs properly crossed, and listened with rapt attention to everything that my teacher told me. I watched the town mayor walk by in the annual parade, with the giant medallion around his neck, and was suitably impressed… Read more »
Last night marked the official arrival of the Christmas season in our home. It came a little later than usual for us this year, due to an abnormally hectic work schedule. But we finally found the time to head to the tree lot at the elementary school near our house to pick out a Christmas… Read more »
I was listening to a radio station on my way home from work a few days ago as they played recorded phone-in comments from listeners who were offering their take on the commercialization of Christmas. The call that struck me the most was from a woman who claimed that all of the cheap gimmicky tawdriness… Read more »
All the other presents beneath the Christmas tree may change each year, but one thing that remains constant is that there will always be books there. For this week’s column of The Good Life, my husband and I have put our heads together to come up with a list of suggested books, for the most… Read more »
About seven years ago, I signed up for a sign language course being offered through a local community college. The course instructor was a vibrant, extroverted type of person with a theatrical flair and the ability get everyone in the class involved in the experience. Learning took place by means of a variety of games… Read more »
It’s one of the most commonplace materials in our society. Everyday we use it for a myriad of purposes, usually without giving it a moment’s attention. When it has served its purpose, we simply discard it into the nearest filing cabinet, recycling bin, or garbage can. And yet, as Paul Jackson and Vivien Frank point… Read more »
A relative of mine once bought one of those exercise contraptions with wires and electrodes from the shopping channel. It was supposed to tone the abdominal muscles by stimulating them with a mild electrical current, while he ate potato chips on the couch and watched Hockey Night in Canada. Within six months, of course, it… Read more »
Every year my daughter’s elementary school is transformed into a place of mysterious mayhem and ghoulish goings on. The halls and walls are bedecked in black plastic sheeting, making everything dim and gloomy looking. One of the classrooms becomes a fortune teller’s den akin to Professor Trelawney’s room in the Harry Potter series, complete with… Read more »
Mental pain and emotional anguish are universal elements of the human condition. The fact that repeated studies have shown depression and suicide rates to be higher in the affluent western world than in third world countries demonstrates that relative material comfort is no insulation from psychological suffering. Financial burdens, family relationships, work and school pressures,… Read more »