Coming to terms with my micro-generation — I was amused last year to learn that I belong to the micro-generation newly termed “geriatric millennials.” This generation consists of people born between approximately 1980 and 1985 (I was born in 1981). Geriatric millennials are, apparently, to be prized in the workforce, as translators between the “digital adapter” boomers…

A reformed perfectionist’s journey toward ‘good enough’ — A few weeks ago, I happened to catch a Freakonomics podcast entitled “Are You a Maximizer or Satisficer?” The podcast, which originally aired in 2020, consists of a conversation between host Steven J. Dubner and psychologist Angela Duckworth about how they allocate time and resources in their lives to achieve…

An ode to everyone who failed to teach me how to whistle, but gave me other gifts instead — I. I began learning how not to whistle when I was starring in the first grade class play, Snow White Thinks Twice. A progressive twist on the classic fairy tale, the play featured a Snow White who knew better than to take food from strangers and so never had to be…

Homeschooling during the pandemic was no walk in the park, but at least we managed to keep ourselves entertained — In retrospect, renting a taxidermied great horned owl for my kids was an obvious attempt to compensate for something. Actually, it was an attempt to compensate for many things. First among them, of course, was Covid. By that point, October 2020, the kids had been cooped up with only their…

From the “you can’t Google this” file — To understand how it happened, first you have to know that the lower part of our driveway was very steep, as steep as one of those streets in San Francisco where you have to curb your wheels when you park and you think you’re going to lose your balance when…

Finding magic in the everyday, courtesy of the pandemic — A couple of weeks ago I took my first plane trip since before Covid began. It was a short trip, just a few days to do some work and to see one of my dearest friends. Our friendship stretches back more than a decade. Although we live far apart, we…

A tool for zooming in on what’s best for you — During this very long winter, many of us have realized that we were dissatisfied with how things used to be. That seems to be at least part of what the Great Resignation is all about. As we — maybe, finally — emerge into spring, it feels as though we have…

Summer love in Paris — In my mind’s eye, the metro ticket is wrinkled and blue, but when I find it in the scrapbook, it turns out to be smooth and green. It is stuck to the back of the only photo I have to prove I once had a French boyfriend. It was the…

Imagining future conversations with your loved ones provides a startling amount of clarity — In the January/February 2022 issue of The Atlantic, Tim Alberta profiles Peter Meijer, a freshman congressman from Michigan and one of only ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year after the January 6th insurrection. The article describes how Meijer consulted several other congresspeople whom he considered “like-minded”…