For a plan-ahead fairly-linear-path person, my path surrounding public sociology has been a lovely winding way, evidenced by the dozens of steps outlined below. And it appears as if the steps have been more akin to the mathematical enigma Penrose Stairs. You know – the steps represented in the M.C. Escher lithograph “Ascending and Descending.”… Read More
Between Journalism and Sociology
I spend more time than the average bear pondering the relationship between stories and data. Between the reporting of timely events and the time-taking required to report research findings that capture large patterns and trends. Between protecting the integrity of a news story by sharing identities of those involved and protecting the confidentiality of those… Read More
Between Home and History
My husband and I bought the house of a former Whitman professor eighteen years ago. The professor’s name was Robert Whitner, and I am grateful that I had the chance to get to know his widow Lola Whitner before she moved to the west side of Washington state in 2000. Lola had been a long-time… Read More
Between Furniture and Stored
I have a love-love relationship with furniture stores and how they showcase imagined and real family experiences. I wrote a book that includes more than your average number of references to furniture, and for good reason, given my devotion to writing about how home objects tell stories about family life that we often don’t notice.… Read More
Between Middle and Schooled
Middle school is a time of life when littler kids look up to you and bigger adults look down on you, until you grow taller, in which case the looking down is not related to height anymore. We are in the midst of sometimes public events involving the young people in our lives that make… Read More
Between Me and My Dog
My dog Maggie has died. She was 18, a best guess from the shelter people who said “she’s probably 2 and probably a cow dog mixed breed with maybe some rottweiler because of those brown eyebrows on her black fur” when we got her 16 years ago. A farm dog, evidenced by a good 8… Read More
Between Small Town and Hero
I live in the small town where Batman grew up. I teach at the small college that Batman attended, where he probably learned things like how even the most stellar camera tricks of the 1960s would make an audience have a hard time believing he and Robin were really walking up that skyscraper wall. The… Read More
Between Valedictorian and Validation
This and dozens of other essays are compiled in the book Between: Living Live in Neither Extreme. Check it out! At the risk of coming across as Braggy McSmartypants, I am going to tell you a little bit about being a valedictorian. Which I was. Or, rather, I say I was valedictorian of my 1990 high… Read More
Between Game of Thrones and Murder, She Wrote
This and dozens of other essays are compiled in the book Between: Living Live in Neither Extreme. Check it out! Death on TV is nothing new, but we all have our thresholds of seeing what it looks like. I made it to the second beheading in Game of Thrones* before I said to my husband… Read More
Between Now and Then
This and dozens of other essays are compiled in the book Between: Living Live in Neither Extreme. Check it out! Below is the Baccalaureate Address I gave at Whitman College. With advice for students, and perhaps for us all. It’s time for celebration! It’s time for family and friends! It’s time to fit in as… Read More
