The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: success

  • You Have Been Warned

    I’ve seen two things recently that have made my hair stand on end because they seem to be so prescient. We are living in terrifying times. And they’re all the more terrifying because these things have happened before. The first thing I’m referring to is the Hulu series, the Handmaid’s Tale, which is based on…

  • My Latest Story–Wrong Can Be Right

    I went to my monthly storytelling event while still in a delighted daze about all the amazing things that have been going on in my life, in terms of the StoryCorps anthology and the anthologies that I’m planning to publish myself, so naturally that’s what I wanted to talk about, even though tooting my own…

  • Failing Forward

    The older I get, the less I view failure as the end of the world. Yeah, it’s depressing, or at the very least embarrassing, but I’ve been shown over and over again that things that might seem as though they are a catastrophe while they’re happening are generally happening for a very good reason. Case…

  • When I’ll Know I’ve Arrived

    I’m a painfully frugal individual. I’ve had to be, simply to survive. I would never have gotten this far if I hadn’t learned how to delay gratification and resist impulse buys. I’ve given up imagining that I’ll ever have even one room full of furniture that matches. I’m more of the found-on-the-side-of-the-road school of decorating.…

  • The Thirty Million Words Initiative

    If I haven’t said it recently (but I’m fairly sure I have), I absolutely love National Public Radio. I learn so much from NPR that I probably would never know otherwise. Case in point: the Thirty Million Words Initiative. One of my all time pet peeves is parents who do not read to or communicate…

  • Academia

    Recently I had the pleasure of walking through the gorgeous campus of the University of Washington here in Seattle. (Go Huskies!) It gave me butterflies. Not only did the stately brick buildings make me feel like I’d stepped into Hogwarts, but also I got that old familiar feeling. Call it academic fever if you like.…

  • On Peaking Early

    I always kind of feel sorry for super successful young athletes and actors. It’s wonderful when someone prospers in life, but when it happens at an early age, before one has the social and emotional skills to deal with all the complications that come with it, that high achievement can and does often lead to…

  • Stolen Lives

    Recently I heard an interview with Andrew McCarthy. He’s probably best known for his acting in the movies Pretty in Pink and Weekend at Bernie’s. But in this interview he talked more about his job as an editor at large for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Okay, this pisses me off. Not only has he maintained…

  • EARN Your Misery

    There are very few things that irritate me as much as watching people wallowing in their own misery and doing nothing to get out of it. There are a lot of awful situations in this world, and many of us have every right to be miserable. But if the universe is lobbing rotten tomatoes at…

  • So Happy for You! Sort of.

    I have six friends who have always had some combination of the following: Good looks. Happy marriages. Dream jobs. The ability to travel extensively. Plenty of money. Gorgeous houses. Excellent health. A secure retirement nest egg. And I’m happy for them. Really I am. It couldn’t happen to nicer people. But I have to admit…