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 […]
When You Were Once Extraordinary, What Happens When You’re Just Ordinary (in NextTribe)
Andrea Askowitz was a young phenom at tennis. Now at 54, there’s more at stake than winning. Twice a week, I play in an advanced-level clinic at Neighborhood Tennis in Coral Gables. Recently, I partnered with a guy who didn’t seem to trust our coach’s scorekeeping and shouted the score after every point. He didn’t […]
Abortion rights activists have been doing it wrong for 50 years (in NBC THINK)
For every woman seeking an abortion, there’s a man responsible for that unwanted pregnancy. We need them in this fight. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday morning, turning the legality of abortion rights over to states to decide. We’ve failed to keep abortion a constitutional right because we’ve made abortion a women’s […]
If I’m Not the Runner I Was, Who Am I? (in Oldster Magazine)
At 53, Andrea Askowitz reckons with the effects of menopause on her athletic abilities, and struggles to keep up with her 12-year-old son. I’ve been a runner my whole life. Until a year ago, I’d injured myself only once, while sliding, drunk, across a recently mopped floor. I never stretched growing up. Now, I have […]