Shavin: Just because you’re worried doesn’t mean the worst isn’t about to happen
This is the time of year I begin mourning the inevitable slide of summer into winter.
Shavin: The trouble with brains
This month I am teaching a workshop at Keystone College in Pennsylvania called "The Trouble With Brains." I took the title from an old Tom Tomorrow cartoon whose basic gist is that while we profess to be in complete control of our brain at all times, the truth is that it functions without conscious input from us much of the time.
Shavin: The art of riding the wind
Last week, Jada the Unfazeable got fazed. She was lying in Theo's downstairs bed with Theo's blanket and Theo's soft dreidel chew toy and Theo's antler chew when a breeze from the open window blew a large painting off the mantel, taking with it four ceramic sculptures and two smaller paintings. The carefully curated art collection landed with an impressive boom and a loud shatter just inches from her face.
Shavin: A few more thoughts on moving and change
This summer, I have an essay coming out in Bark Magazine. It's the story of losing my three elderly dogs within two years of each other. In case you've never heard of Bark, it's a magazine for dog lovers but with a literary bent, sort of a Dog Fancy meets Poets & Writers.
No Way, Jose: The Road to Oaxaca Leads to Key West
Stranded travelers are faced with a decision: what to do now?
Shavin: A Passover tale for the ages
Every culture has its culinary embarrassments. Boiled organs and roasted marsupials are my husband's. A trio of whitefish, carp and pike, simmered with tails, fins, heads and bones, then ground and pressed into balls that quiver in a suspension reminiscent of hair gel, paired with a syrupy wine that coats the tongue like a cadmium oil slick, are mine.
Shavin: Husband obsessed by house-building is a beautiful thing
We were watching TV. I thought it was a medication commercial. An older couple moved through the rooms of their sun-drenched home slowly, as if burdened by unspoken pain. What miracle of science, I thought, what wonder drug, could chase away their obvious agony?
Dana Shavin: Praising procrastination — but not just yet
Last week, I was standing in a ridiculously long line at the post office that was moving at approximately the pace of evolution when I remembered I'd not yet gotten my mother a Valentine's Day card.
Shavin: Name-calling and finger-pointing: It only hurts when I yell
Last week I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came upon something disturbing. There was a dog that needed a new home because his family had decided to do some traveling. People were sharing the post like crazy. But that's not all they were doing.
Dana Shavin: The year in review — according to Facebook
I was just looking at my year in review video, courtesy of Facebook. There were a lot of great photos: my dogs sleeping in an assortment of venues, including on the bed, in shafts of sunlight on the kitchen floor, in laps, at my office and on the porch glider.
