Tag Archives: family

A Case of the Human Condition: How Do I Mother My Twenty-Somethings? The Same Way I Mothered My Ten-Year-Olds - With Overkill

Christina hadn’t called. We had dropped her at the airport hours ago. The flight to Burbank takes only seventy minutes. She should be home by now. But Jon and I still hadn’t gotten the, “I’m home. The plane didn’t crash. My roommate remembered to pick me up, and we didn’t get mugged in the garage,” phone call.

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An Case of the Human Condition: A Child Is Born — And So Is a Grandpa

My friend Jake is a man in his prime. He does triathlons, reads good books, knows all the best hiking trails and drinks nice wines. Jake has never been anybody’s rickety old grandpa — until recently, when Jake’s daughter gave birth to a baby girl.

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A Case of the Human Condition: The Center of the Universe? It’s a Little Beach in Michigan, of Course

If I were drawing a map of the world, its center would be at Bass Lake, just where its outlet flows into the great, blue Lake Michigan. I have lived in California for nearly two decades, but like my forebears - my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother - I return to Lake Michigan every chance I get.

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A Case of the Human Condition: Geographic Mobility in America — Watching My Kids Disappear

Most of my grandmother’s children - there were seven of them - lived out their lives within walking distance of their mother’s white frame house in Scottville, Michigan. Not my father. He moved away.

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A (Pillow) Case of the Human Condition: Time to Crack Open That Hope Chest and Live a Little

I waited too long to get married. By the time Jon and I said our vows, the contents of my hope chest had become outdated, old-fashioned, fussy — unusable. As a result, after thirty some years of marriage, I continue to be the owner of a dozen or so beautiful, hand-embroidered, virginal pillowcases.

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