This question crops up from time to time, and my response rarely varies. If I could, I would command my 20-year-old self to be confident. The insecurities of youth are soul-destroying, and with the advent of social media and peer pressure for “likes”, young people are constantly under pressure to be better—the assumption being that they are never good enough. They have to keep striving to…
It’s been a terrible week, and there are times when it makes us feel better just to vent, to get our anger and nasty thoughts down on “paper”—like in the olden days when we would spill out our venom in a letter, or more recently, an email, then never mail it. That’s what this post is. We all remember the $10 million “Let them eat…
With so much death, war, corruption, and disaster in the world these days, it’s a relief to come upon a book that provides a respite from all that. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is an easy, contemplative story about a sophisticated 86-year-old Portuguese man with a secret past who arrives in a little town called Golden, Georgia in pursuit of quiet pleasures during his final…
Ten years ago, I posted twice about the wisdom of encouraging young people to learn to code, Mothers Make Sure Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Coders, and, Both My Left and Right Brains Say Go For It! (I encourage you to read these links.) As an example of my commitment to this skill, I even took an all-day Saturday session called “Ladies Learning to…
For the benefit of new readers, I’m reposting my annual March Madness message. Please tell me I’m not the only person in the world who thought March Madness was about special annual retail sales like Black Friday or Boxing Day. For weeks leading up to the big event and for the duration, I’ve been waiting for the flyers from my favourite retailers to arrive in…
There may not be a better form of reading escapism than a good, old, rootin’, tootin’ story of historical fiction set in the Klondike during the gold rush days in the late 1800s. The Rush by Beth Lewis is a bit different, however, because it’s written from a feminist perspective. Throughout history, there have been strong women whose accomplishments have often exceeded those of men,…
