Halene and I were eating lunch together, together for the last time as it turned out. “So, you remember that scene in Titanic where Jack sketches Rose lying nude on a couch?” Yes, I said. “Well, that was Dogie and me.” She was looking down at her salad and remembering her cowboy-painter husband who had [...]
Masculinity comes in many forms. Height, build, protectiveness, resolve, muscles, decisiveness, sensitivity, strength, courage, taking charge, heroism, bravery. And I witnessed all of those things in my man one day 16 years ago. We were living on a bayou in Dickinson, Texas. Our estuary was alive with fish, ducks, and herons, and our neighbor’s geese [...]
I made my way through central Mexico by myself for a month in the summer of 1975. I’d finished my post-BA education classes to qualify for an Illinois teaching certificate, and I had just broken up with a longtime boyfriend. I flew into Mexico City from Chicago, took buses, walked beaches, swam, wrote, and carried [...]
I often tell new mothers about the “many weanings” a woman goes through and that weaning a child from breastfeeding is just one of many. Now I’m going through another weaning myself: as of this week, all my children will be living on their own. My oldest son lives back east with two roommates in [...]
I was browsing a department store when I saw them. A beautiful pair of black-and-white checked pants with one-inch cuffs, zippered fly, and a thin black belt. Very Lauren Bacall. I bought the pants and modeled them in front of my mirror several hours later. I’ve never looked good in patterns or pants with flies, [...]
Sometimes I think my whole adult life I’ve been searching for the eight-year-old me. The eight-year-old who was so confident, creative, and sure back in 1956. That little girl who wrote stories about collies and Army men and nuclear war, who made up plays with her marionettes, held circuses in her backyard, directed plays, and [...]
