Two years ago, I converted to Catholicism. I was raised Lutheran, identified as kinda Lutheran-by-default for most of my life, dabbled in Unitarianism, and settled into an indifferent agnosticism that seems pretty common in my generation – a kind of “how am I supposed to know if God exists, but I can vouch for the fact that a whole lot of Christians are real assholes” thing. Then I got engaged to a lapsed Catholic, and we both started having some God-related restlessness and feeling some […]
Being a Great Dad is Simple: Love Your Kids!
My old college roommate is by all accounts a very good and cool guy. He has a cool job, a family he loves, and he drag races and plays in the World Series of Poker fairly routinely. When he gave me a book on being a dad, I knew I had to bump it to the top of my book stack. Dr. Meg Meeker’s Hero didn’t disappoint. Meeker is a thirty-year pediatrician and has become something of a parenting guru who has written several books […]
It’s too late for me; someone’s gotta save my kid
An anecdote: When my daughter was born, we were living in a fairly affluent community in an area known for affluent communities. While my husband and I are a hair’s breadth away from being Favored Fifth, our neighbors were almost certainly over the line. In a village of single family homes, we lived in one of the few multi-unit buildings. We worried over whether our daughter would feel the difference between what her classmates would have and what we would have. Against that backdrop, I […]
Another great book by Liane Moriarty
It’s clear that the target reader for Liane Moriarty’s books is primarily female and, most likely, a parent and married woman. So I’m not sure why I gravitate to her books so much—I am female, but I am neither a parent nor married—but damn if I do love her stuff. When I start one of her books I am pulled in immediately and swept along the entire story. She does a fairly brilliant job of drawing up fun, interesting and complex characters, and keeping the […]