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Essays, Memoirs & True Stories
The Contrary Farmer
The truth is that farming at its worst is no more physically punishing than operating a restaurant, brokering commodities on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, or training for the Olympics.
April 1995Lamb Of God
Robert came to my church when he was in his early forties. He was a short, stocky, shiny-faced man with glittering glasses and mind. And he was HIV-positive. He joined the church because he was preparing to die and wanted to die reconciled with God.
April 1995Day Of Rest
This July Sunday is hotter than any I have ever felt in Wyoming. It has been dry for weeks. The sun hangs limply in the sky, but for all its limpness, it blazes. The clouds are thin and high. The temperature is over a hundred.
March 1995Impetigo
In the summer of 1958, the summer before I started kindergarten, my family — my mother; my father; my sister, Marie; my mother’s mother; and I — took its first and last family vacation.
March 1995Interview With The Witch Doctor
Nestled among a thousand acres of banana trees in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Lutheran compound is a haven of modern conveniences. But in the surrounding village the people remain steeped in tradition and still rely on witch doctors to solve problems.
March 1995If The World Were A Village Of 1,000 People
If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include: 584 Asians; 124 Africans; 95 eastern and western Europeans; 84 Latin Americans; 55 former Soviets (including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups); 52 North Americans; 6 Australians and New Zealanders.
March 1995Capturing The Moment
It may not matter anymore where any of us have actually been. We can now visit our national parks by videocassette, in which, as one company offering such tapes promises, “the remarkable sights and sounds are preserved for you.”
February 1995A Map From My House To Your House
You have probably never used a map like this before. Read it carefully, and know where you are starting from.
February 1995My New Neighbors
A new couple has moved into the apartment next door to mine in this ancient Victorian. They are using the same bed as the previous couple, Nicole and Peter, whose dramatic lovemaking I would hear quite clearly as their headboard pounded my living-room wall.
February 1995Fathering The Night
Carrying the baby horizontally across my chest like a football usually calms him, and often puts him to sleep. But not tonight. He’s still crying, cycling through his whole repertoire: the screechy fear cry; the lower, throaty demand cry; the pitiable gasping interspersed with slobbery whimpers.
February 1995
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