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Home Movies: Things You Didn't See When They Were Happening
When my father visited in February, he brought each of us---my mom, my sister and I---our own burned DVD copy of a small collection of home movies he'd found and which he had taken himself with his parents' handheld video camera in, I'm guessing roughly, 1989. Kit, still Katie then, was four or five years old, and I, then Susie, was seven or eight ( Read more... ) -
Passing through fire
The man with the golden smile pulled a blanket around himself, disguised as a mourner, and followed the family down to the Burning Ghats. They carried their late grandfather wrapped in a sheet, and laid him on a pyre at the edge of the stairs that led into the water ( Read more... ) -
Anywhere in this world
You know when you were little and you jumped in a pool, and you kind of hung there, just under the surface, your chest full of air, experiencing total deafness as the water carried you around like a banana slice in not-quite-settled Jell-O? I kind of feel like that, only not all restful and dreamlike ( Read more... ) -
Why we cook
"Food was her means of expressing love. Some might argue that a few hugs would have been more beneficial to a growing child, but I tried to understand. She wasn't tremendously confident, and bestowing food was a wonderful way of making a fuss without chancing rejection. Even people who don't want to be squeezed enjoy being fed ( Read more... )