My wife stood at the kitchen table the other day separating coins for a lesson she was preparing for her kindergarten students. She divided the change into piles, separating the great silver discs of quarters from the dimes and nickels, finding a space in the corner for that midget of a copper afterthought, the penny….
“Feed your children stories that will keep their eyes wide with wonder when they look out their front windows or wander their yards,” wrote N.D. Wilson in a 2011 essay on storytelling. “Feed them stories of joy and hardship and courage and tragedy and triumph. Give them heroes, real and imagined. Give them a taste…
One of the most transformative cultural moments of my young life – though I didn’t know it at the time – involved a frog in a swamp. In the opening seconds of a movie I watched countless times as a child, the credits flicker onto the screen as a helicopter shot opens on a long…
I love to sing. But let me get something straight here. I’ve got what might best be described as a voice made for a choir. I can hit the right pitch, read music, adjust my dynamics, and really belt it out. Put me with a few dozen other singers, and we can really make some…
Last December, in some bizarre attempt to be festive, we started the odd family tradition of waking our children for school with the radio blaring Christmas music from the living room downstairs. Don’t judge. So, for a few weeks, they (and we) were treated to Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole at an obscene volume…
This summer, quite by accident, my son and I stumbled into a new bedtime reading routine that has been so nourishing and therapeutic, it’s opened my eyes to a fresh vision of rest and margin. One night, as we were heading into his room, my son pulled a chapter book from his bedside table and told me…
My six-year old son played soccer for the first time this summer. At his first practice, I dropped him off and watched from the fence as he lingered on the sideline, right cleat atop his ball, and watched the others enthusiastically drilling their shots into the small net. His coach greeted him with a warm…
There’s an old story about the blues musician Robert Johnson, whose mastery of the electric guitar – it was said – came about as a result as a secret meeting at the crossroads with the devil himself. Every time I read Jack Prelutsky’s poetry, I have the same feeling – this guy must have made…
I recently read The Song Machine, John Seabrook’s startling book about the state of pop music in the digital era. Among other topics covered in the book, Seabrook spends quite a bit of time talking about the process of making hit songs for chart-topping pop acts like Katy Perry and Britney Spears. I’ll spare you…
My older son was born the same week as the Pixar movie Wall-E, and I’ve always felt a bond with the little trash-collecting robot. Like Wall-E, I’m a bit of a pack rat, I have a fondness for old musicals, and I have a tendency to run into things when I’m trying to impress someone….
Why do you love stories? (I know. There are too many reasons to count.) For me, one good reason is food, of course. And dragons. But one constant throughout all the great stories I’ve heard – and hopefully told – is that they feel truthful. Deep down, there’s a thread running through all of them…
Confession: When I first got serious about writing, I did the coffee shop thing. I’d take my laptop down to the corner Panera and park myself in front of the gas fireplace with the other soup-lovers and pound away at the keys, feeling more confident with every passing minute that I was a Real Author….
