The Hands You Cannot See
When a thirteen-month-old knocks a glass off the table and it breaks on the floor, the first reaction might be fear or anger, but punishing him would be
The Diversion
The most useful teacher I’ve had this past year has been my phone. Oddly enough, it taught me the most when I didn’t pick it up. Before this
The Past You Brought Into the Room
On my usual dog walk route, there are six tennis courts, pressed right up against the fence, and I am fairly sure every child on them could beat me. Every
The Rectangle
When i was 18, I was working as a summer job on a massive construction site as a helping hand for a company doing plumbing. For three weeks a supervisor
Honest Decent Work
I went in for yogurt this morning. School is out, it is summer, the city is half empty as either they are on vacation or have gone home, and the
Unweighted
People like to say nobody is ready to be a parent. They are right, but only about stuff like how to change a diaper or how to function on a
The Trace and the Cause
There’s a genre of posts that does well on social media. Listing three or four icons of achievement, naming the visible sacrifice each one made, and arguing that anyone
The State I Was In
Over 40 years ago, my grandparents built a vacation house near a natural spring where a pool complex was built. A month ago, I took my son there to have
Inside the Good Part
Last Friday I walked past a few hundred high school seniors who had no idea they were inside the good part of their lives.
Not Knowing Yet
In elementary school, I’d hand in my exam first. The kids around me would still be halfway through, and I’d already be at the teacher’s desk. I’
The Deal
A few months ago, I had a couple of calls with an ex-colleague. While working together, we got along nicely and even planned to hang out with our wives
The Guy With the Gap
I used to walk into the pre-match meeting and high-five everyone in the room. Take the piss out of someone, get it back twice as hard. The room