Three Graces In the Sunflower Café the waitresses sat down in booths with elderly customers and watched them shuffle photos of grandkids like decks of cards, as if looking for a good hand. Some early retirees—robust, tanned, and laughing — described the… Mar 22 21March 22, 2021Article at Brevity
Of Baldness and Fathers“We’re all born bald, baby.” —Telly Savalas My first noticeable symptom, I guess, was the start of a tonsure in my 30s. I do not look in mirrors much, and the thinning was not visible to me at that angle anyway, so as far as I knew, I looked like… Mar 02 21March 02, 2021Article at Common Reader
An Echo Through a Train of Rooms: Father and Son at the End of an EraFrom nails, mucous membrane, Lungs, liver, bowels, and spleen Whose house is made? Mine. —Czeslaw Milosz, from “City Without a Name” My elder son, who is 18, has worried he is missing out on interesting times. It would have been better if he lived in… Jan 28 21January 28, 2021Article at Common Reader
The Recipe in the Writing ClassMy brother-in-law’s grandfather was kind and had an infectious laugh, but he was also a tough old bird, and to watch him eat was to be shown what he had endured in his time. As a young man he had been a machine-gunner in World War I, which he spoke… Dec 22 20December 22, 2020Article at Common Reader
Swimming to CambodiaOne fall evening, many years ago, I was standing in line at the movies with a girl I was trying to impress. A woman behind us was telling her husband what we were waiting to see: a guy sitting behind a table, talking, for an hour and a half. Uh-oh, I… Nov 30 20November 30, 2020Article at Common Reader
The Meaning of YearsOne of my old friend’s names is a synonym for king. I have known him since we were maybe eight, when his mother placed him in my mom’s Cub Scout den. We were all rascals, but he and I were fatherless and poor. Due to the authority of his size, and… Oct 19 20October 19, 2020Article at Common Reader
Requiem for a Young Soldier Who VanishedIn Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs… Aug 28 20August 28, 2020Article at Common Reader
Fragments From an Imagined ApocalypseYou have control over the money, but we have control over how you are going to be seen in history. —Percy Green, prominent St. Louis activist “I can’t breathe, officer. You’re going to kill me, man. Come on, man. Oh, oh. I cannot breathe. I cannot… Jul 28 20July 28, 2020Article at Common Reader
Facing the Beast“The unravelling of a riddle is the purest and most basic act of the human mind.” —Vladimir Nabokov, in a self- review of his own memoir, Speak, Memory In 1995, just before U.S. rapprochement, my friend Frenchy and I traveled together to Vietnam,… Jun 26 20June 26, 2020Article at Common Reader
I’m From Herrin, by GodThe first thing the host asked me for was the story about my Aunt Ruby. Ruby and my mother, her youngest sister, had driven from our town in Southern Illinois to St. Louis. This was maybe 70 years ago. Ruby accidentally drove the wrong way up a busy… Apr 21 20April 21, 2020Article at Common Reader
Little Car, Big ImpactMy mom drove a Ford Thunderbird, in the ’60s, which seemed to match her sense of adventure and style. It means something (I am not sure what) that James Bond and Thelma and Louise drove similar cars. But what the Thunderbird really symbolized was a… Mar 25 20March 25, 2020Article at Common Reader
