-
What the World Owes You
If you have seen this going around Facebook or other social media, you might reasonably have thought that the world owes you a legal pad and a pen, but nothing else. The problem is, when most people see a meme like this, they are thinking of a spoiled 22 year old who thinks he should be given an A for simply showing up to his college courses. But as a foster parent, I see the world differently. I do not see adults (spoiled or otherwise), I see children. And guess what, as a society, as the world, we do, in fact, owe our children many things. So here is my…
-
Goodbye Miss Stella
This past Thursday morning, it finally happened. We had known it was imminent. For a while now, C and I had been talking days, but the days had gone into two weeks, and we had hoped, just a little bit. But we still knew. And so every morning, I still checked. This past Thursday morning, I found Stella, one of Pop Tart’s rats, dead in her cage. I had been checking every morning, for the last few weeks, before Pop Tart woke up, specifically for this purpose, so that I would be the one to find her, to remove her from the cage. Because Pop Tart was going to take…
-
Instead of College, Can We Talk About Daycare?
Let me say that I appreciate that Sanders has pushed the conversation to the left. No matter who the eventual Democratic nominee for the President is, the conversation has been better because he has been part of it. At the same time, I realized the other day that I am mad at him. Not for being in the race, but for pushing the conversation toward universal college education, and forcing Clinton to respond specifically to that. As I have said before, I am not against universal college education. In fact, as a parent of a 6th grader, I am likely to benefit from it. But what if the conversation had…
-
Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The first time we read American Gods, C said to me “This is why I can never write a book, because I could never be this good.” The truth is, there are very few people who are as talented at writing as Neil Gaiman, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane continues his tradition of authorial excellence. I cannot truly give a summary of the plot without giving too much away. I think it is best to say this is a book about memory, childhood, and the way how we view the world changes as we grow older. It is also a book about friendship and sacrifice, and…
