The radio program This American Life recently devoted an entire episode to the topic of summer camp. Most of the kids that were interviewed loved camp, its rituals, language, and most of all, the feeling of belonging. Some said they thought about camp all year long, speaking “camp language” to bewildered hometown friends. A few even grew up to become counselors at the same … [Read more...]

I’m not a good person. I mean, I’m not a bad person, exactly. But let’s face it: there’s some ugliness in here. For instance, I'm not a forgiving person. Once crossed, I never forget, and almost never forgive. I can be vengeful and harsh. For most of my life, I was able to hide that part of my personality, even from myself. But over the years, it’s taken on weight and … [Read more...]

Astrologers are fond of observing that a Libra is nothing more than an Aries who’s been to charm school. Libra is every bit as determined as his fellow cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn) to get what he wants. But Libra has the ability to make it look as though serving his own needs is the furthest thing from his mind. That isn't meant as a criticism, by the way. I … [Read more...]

Eclipses are the universe’s way of letting us know that we’ve taken a particular path as far as it can reasonably go, and that it's time to change course. The nature of eclipses is crisis, those fateful moments when we find we can no longer cling to the familiar and must move in a new direction. When all hell breaks loose at eclipse time (and it often does), it’s very often … [Read more...]

One day, driving back from an otherwise uneventful trip to Trader Joe's, I became so angry at a fellow motorist that I screamed - and it felt so good that I screamed some more. I screamed so enthusiastically that my husband, over in the passenger's seat, started to get kind of concerned. He later told me that my screaming and anger had made him feel "as though someone was … [Read more...]