One year ago today, the staff of The Mark Twain House & Museum met in our 176-seat auditorium to address the fact that this COVID-19 thing was suddenly more serious and more threatening than we had allowed ourselves, individually or collectively, personally or institutionally, to imagine. We gathered in the auditorium instead of our regular …
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Summer’s officially over, now that Labor Day’s behind us. Time to turn our attention to all things pumpkin-spiced, right?. Nope. Not for me. Here in New England, we should have another week or three — and, with any luck, one or two more beyond that, even — of summerish weather. I love …
I am flabbergasted on the daily. If anyone, stranger or friend, had told me in March that I’d be living in social isolation for months, maybe a year or more, well…. we all share THAT experience. But if that same person had also told me that the universe would deliver unto me a beautiful black …
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel as though the world shifted dramatically this week? It’s not just the decisions by federal and state governments to start loosening restrictions and opening businesses back up, though that of course contributes mightily to the shift. In my gut, I sense the end of an era, …
I’ve been a self-conscious creature for most, really almost all, of my life. Doing anything, from eating a meal in front of other people to being not-quite-off-camera while steadying a tripod during a photo shoot to delivering a presentation to the board of trustees and everything in between, was, until recently, so painful to me …
Everyone is talking about “the new normal” as if it were a bad thing. But I didn’t like the old normal all that much, now that I’ve had plenty of time and space to think about it, and I’m not in a big hurry to go back. Like everyone else, I’m worried and scared. (Well, …
