LAUREN SLATER is the author of Prozac Diary (Penguin) and Opening Skinner’s Box (Bloomsbury Publishing). She says her essay in the August 2007 issue is part of a collection about “the grand, fascinating, and consistently relevant event called My Life.” She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Consumer Report

by Lauren Slater, August 2007 (Issue 380)

Three Spheres

by Lauren Slater, November 1996 (Issue 251)