Tell Us A Little About Yourself

“My completed questionnaire should have taken me about five minutes. But I spent days composing it, laboring over its many facets of subject matter. It was more like an opus, an emotional, spiritual and intellectual topographic map of my internal landscape. This questionnaire was going to be a window into my soul. Surely others were sending in similar representations of themselves.”

More…

Paul Ricoeur on What a Story Is

A story describes a sequence of actions and experiences done or undergone by a certain number of people, whether real or imaginary. These people are presented either in situations that change or as reacting to such change. In turn, these changes reveal hidden aspects of the situation and the people…

More…

Proverbs from the Cold: 1974

“Back then flying was still sort of a big deal. You dressed up a little. I remember that I wore my one dressy outfit, a ghastly ensemble of dusty rose polyester pants and a floral shirt with similar mauve overtones. I thought I looked really good in it.”

More…

Proverbs from the Cold: 1987

“It was the day of the fall/winter session’s final exam. In the wee hours a blizzard had kicked into high gear, crippling the entire city by rush hour. The snow was already approaching knee height. City services struggled to plow the streets. Subway service was spotty. Still, I was determined to take that final.”

More…

Proverbs from the Cold: 2010

“I sat inside on the couch, in a house without power. All I could do was sit, listen and wait. Waiting for our branches to fall, which many of them did over the course of the day, became almost meditative, and the inevitability of each new piece of damage almost gratifying.”

More…