Essays
1096 results
Page 6
From Philly to Chile: meeting the pandemic in a whole new hemisphere
How to change the sky
After almost two years of sheltering at home, Anndee Hochman flew to Chile, and experienced a very different response to the pandemic there. What made the difference, and why is it important to witness?
Essays
5 minute read
School reunions in a pandemic make us wonder what could have been, but are we looking in the wrong direction?
The universe inside
A pair of school reunions this year, plus emerging from the shutdowns of the pandemic, restarted Michelle Chikaonda’s habit of wondering who she would be in an alternate universe. But this time, something is different.
Essays
5 minute read
Why a trip to Kentucky’s Creation Museum makes me worry about Pennsylvania’s future
Because the Bible says so
Nowadays, Kentucky’s Creation Museum is starting to feel awfully familiar to the Christian battleground looming in Pennsylvania, thanks to far-right politicians like Doug Mastriano. Rob Laymon considers.
Essays
5 minute read
A walk in the woods, with the wrens, makes me wonder: if things were simpler, when?
Where do house wrens go home?
A photo of a common bird gives flight to Kile Smith’s thoughts on technology and gratitude. Were things really simpler “back then”? What do we witness nowadays, and how?
Essays
5 minute read
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When your disability is often invisible, it can be hard to claim your identity
Living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Journalist Daralyse Lyons was living with the symptoms of a rare connective-tissue disorder long before she had a word for it, but her official diagnosis led to an important life decision.
Essays
4 minute read
As a retired librarian who loves to read books, I’m all for giving kids screen-time
Welcome to iPad Land
As a bookworm kid who became a librarian, Roz Warren used to assume screens were bad news for youngsters. But now she takes a different view.
Essays
4 minute read
On Independence Day 2022, is our democracy failing? Not if we listen to our children.
We have to grow up. So does our country.
SaraKay Smullens knows a thing or two about adolescence: she’s a social worker, a family therapist, and a mother. Things in the US seem pretty bleak, but she argues that this is our adolescence, and we can still seize a bright future.
Essays
6 minute read
When home leaves you: a Father’s Day foray into holding on and letting go
Packing up my parents’ house
When Anndee Hochman’s parents moved to the Philly suburbs in 1965, it was a compromise. Almost 60 years later, the house holds a departed father’s heart. It’s time to say goodbye again.
Essays
5 minute read
Losing your sight means adaptation, in life as well as music. I seize the rhythm.
A drummer’s Pride and joy
Delight is something writer and musician Danie Ocean wants more of, and that means picking up a new instrument. It’s a career move, but also a move for Black, queer, blind, nonbinary joy.
Essays
2 minute read
Children on the edge: a fourth-grade poetry teacher mourns Uvalde
They were fourth graders.
Anndee Hochman is a parent. She remembers what a horrible day for schoolkids used to mean: sniffles, the dentist’s chair, lima beans for dinner. Today, she teaches fourth graders. The fourth graders who are still alive.
Essays
6 minute read