I gave a book on men and how men experience the world to my girlfriend at the time, maybe five or ten years ago. After reading it, she asked me, “Do men have emotions?” Apparently she thought men didn’t have emotions. In fact, she clarified, “I thought men just did things.” I’m glad she asked if she didn’t know. I was surprised she didn’t. For context, she had graduated a[…] Keep reading →

Following my request for questions, a reader asked one I wouldn’t have expected: How much time and money is enough, or fair, to spend with your wife and children if you need to work to have money for a simple life, in your country? First a caveat: I’ll plead some ignorance never having married. For that matter, my biological parents divorced around when I was in nursery school. On the[…] Keep reading →

Rob and I have created a series of one-on-one reflections on inside views on the lockdown. In my case, I haven’t lived this closely with my mom since before school—not college, not high school, but school, meaning kindergarten. Among other things, I share on a flare-up between my step-father and me and how I plan to resolve it. Also my comparisons between generational differences today and in All in the[…] Keep reading →

James Lipton, who started and hosted the show Inside the Actors Studio, died yesterday. Here are the notes I read from for this episode: I could talk about how much I enjoyed the episodes, his humor, and a few things I learned from his guests that only his interviewing could have elicited but I will go deeper, to share how fundamental his work has been to mine. Many times I’ve[…] Keep reading →

Following my post Thoughts on reading my love letters to my high school girlfriend after 30 years, I’ve gotten closer to getting rid of them. I haven’t, but I’ve gotten nearly as close as I’m willing, though I’m keeping a plan B. Since my post Less, Please, on getting rid of hundreds of books near the beginning of this blog, about ten years ago — or “putting them back into[…] Keep reading →

Following up my posts Mementos of my high school girlfriend and The Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did, I finally read the letters and cards from her to me and from me to her. We wrote them from around the summer of 1988, after graduating high school, to about a year later, the summer after our first years in college. She went to school outside Boston. I went to school[…] Keep reading →

Almost two months ago, I wrote in Mementos of my high school girlfriend how I wasn’t sure I wanted to review the mementos. Maybe memories I treasured would turn out ordinary happenings of any young man in his late teens. I haven’t read my letters to her, but I read hers to me and was pleased to find something I’d forgotten — how close we were. More than close. Uninhibited.[…] Keep reading →