The Making of a Resourceful Young Woman

In the summer of 1984 I returned to Michigan from my first year of boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina. I was sixteen years old with no local friends and a driver's license in hand, so I decided to get a job. I placed an ad in the local newspaper that read, "Ambitious student desires full-time summer job. Can babysit and type." A veritable mountain of talent!


Soon I was offered a babysitting job in a nearby town -- forty hours per week for $2.00/hour to watch two young children. During the first week I established an easy, monotonous routine of diapers, naps, lunch, soap operas, walks . . . [more]

Just Some Minavelins

Until the age of fifteen I lived in Michigan, which meant that I said things like "You guys gonna go to the game?" and "We're out of pop, eh?" and "I'm layin' on the davenport because I don't feel good." At age fifteen, I left home to attend boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina, and my vernacular shifted to "Y'all goin' to the game?" and "We're out of Coke, did y'all know that?" and "I'm lyin' on the couch because I don't feel good."


When I am concentrating, I can eliminate most of the slang, idiosyncratic phrases and regional accents out of my speech; however, when I am tired or rela . . . [more]

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule, often referred to as the ethic of reciprocity, is a central teaching in nearly all major religions: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."


This valuable principle first came to life for me on a felt board in a church basement. The Sunday school teacher pressed the cutout of Jesus into interactions with a Samaritan woman, a man with leprosy and then with Zacchaeus. She then challenged us to follow the Golden Rule for one week. As we closed the lesson with a rousing rendition of "Zacchaeus was a Wee Little Man", my head was swimming. I intended to return the follo . . . [more]

And the Award goes to . . .

Morgan Quitno Press has again announced America's safest and most dangerous cities, and I am so proud to announce that I grew up right between two of the top five most dangerous cities in the United States -- Detroit, Michigan and Flint, Michigan. What an honor!


Periodically, I pass through an area of the country that reminds me of eastern Michigan. A strange combination of comfortable familiarity, mental paralysis and deep depression washes over me like an insidious poison, and I want to withdraw into a fetal position.


You have a nagging desire to experience this sensat . . . [more]