WHAT ARE THESE NUMBER ESSAYS ABOUT?
I’m a slow writer. I want to write better. I want to write faster. And like Marianne Williamson says, I have one last chance to get it right. Because there’s no time like the present; because turning 50 is better than the alternative; and because you only live once, I’m going for it. This year, […]
A Numbers Game (in Memoir Land)
Floridian Andrea Askowitz jumps and counts her way through her anxiety over climate change, and this Atlantic hurricane season. I pull out my jump rope and start slow with a double jump, just high enough for the rope to pass under my feet. Swing, jump, jump one. Swing, jump, jump two. Swing, jump, jump three. At 100, I […]
I Challenged Myself to Stop Talking About Myself (in shondaland)
When her relationship hit a snag, a writer accidentally discovered the secret to a long-lasting, sex-filled partnership. As my wife, Vicky, turned off the lights to go to bed, she asked me about my college dorm. We had just dropped off our daughter at college for the first time. The question got me reminiscing about […]
Resolve to Fail More 2024
Last Friday night, I was washing dishes when I said, “Yay, it’s the weekend.” “Isn’t every day the weekend for you?” My 14-year-old son, Sebastian, said. I was like, “Listen Buster, first of all, I wake up at 6:25 to get you to school. I know you think I crawl back to bed, but I […]
You Should Try Making an Anti-Gratitude List. Really. (in Slate)
Being thankful is all the rage. It doesn’t always help! The Bible mentions gratitude 157 times. The New Testament says “Give thanks in all circumstances.” In modern times, Oprah Winfrey calls the gratitude journal life-changing. You’ve heard it. Scientists say gratitude helps the brain. In the beginning, in the mid-’90s, while playing softball and working to save the world, […]
WRITING LIFE “Navel Gazing” for Good (in Hippocampus Magazine)
After an intense, long weekend of writing workshops, we walked into a brew pub. I was so pumped up, I couldn’t sit down and went around the table bear-hugging each scientist. “How will we be able to tell if Andrea’s drunk?” one said. “She’ll start hugging everyone,” my writing partner, Allison Langer, said. We hadn’t ordered […]
Talking to My Friends on the Phone Led to My Calling—Writing and Teaching (in Brevity Blog)
My daughter, Tashi, just finished her first year of college. Over spring break, my dad asked her what she wants to study. “Dad stop,” I said and threw my arm in front of his chest to block him. The number of times this 19-year-old has been asked what she wants to study is in the […]
Opinion: What Justine Bateman gets exactly right about beauty (on CNN)
Justine Bateman, a star whose age I’m approaching, played Mallory Keaton on “Family Ties” in the 1980s as a teenager. In her early 40s, she says, she typed her name into Google for research, and the search engine auto-populated “looks old.” Bateman, now 57, said she was incredulous. “I couldn’t see what they were talking […]
How to Stop Feeling Anxious When Telling a Deeply Personal Story: You Can’t (in Brevity Blog)
The morning of a teaching gig at the University of Pennsylvania, my alma mater, I woke up panicked, so I went for a run. The day was brisk, the way this Miami girl remembered the Philadelphia fall weather more than 30 years ago. Read the Full Article
My Valentine’s Day experiment: I didn’t talk about myself for 24 hours (in The Washington Post)
Here’s what it taught me about my relationship. Thirteen years ago, on Feb. 14, my wife, Vicky, and I pledged our love forever. I thought that pledge meant we’d always be there to listen. Years later, on a different Valentine’s Day, I called Vicky in the middle of the day while she was having lunch […]
The pictures we post of our teens don’t always tell the whole story (in Motherwell)
In June, my daughter, Tashi, graduated from high school. She got dressed up under her robe in a vintage wedding dress, black-lace gloves, and full makeup including press-on eyelashes. Maybe over the top, but her effort gave me hope. I was tempted to post pictures on social media. I took a million: one with her […]
