Blaming My Neural Circuitry

By Lynn Slaughter / April 20, 2016 /

As a kid, I was regularly criticized by my family members for being “too sensitive.” Even as I vehemently denied the accusation, my feelings were terribly hurt! And secretly

Psychic Pleasures

By Lynn Slaughter / April 13, 2016 /

Years ago, I took a communications course from a professor who announced on the first day, “There’s no such thing as altruism.” A staunch proponent of exchange theory, he insisted that all social interactions are governed by people’s desire to gain a reward in exchange for providing something of value to others. I gamely attempted…

In My Next Life, I Want to Be Dean Koontz

By Lynn Slaughter / April 6, 2016 /

Okay. I admit it. I’m incredibly jealous of Dean Koontz. It’s not just his prodigious talent and prolific success as a writer. It’s also that he still writes on an old Commodore word processor. He’s never bothered to learn how to do email. If he needs to send a message, he simply writes it out…

Counting My “Lucky Days”

By Lynn Slaughter / March 30, 2016 /

“This is my lucky day, Mee-Ma,” my six year old granddaughter announced. “Our class got to go swimming, I had chess club after school, and now take a look!” She proudly presented me with a bloody tooth. “Wow, the tooth fairy is going to be busy tonight,” I said.

Personality: Invalid?

By Lynn Slaughter / March 24, 2016 /

The other day, my son called up and said with a laugh, “Mom, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I have an invalid personality.” “What do you mean?” “I took this personality test, and it says I’m ‘invalid.’”

Thinking About Peyton

By Lynn Slaughter / March 16, 2016 /

Okay, so I don’t have his millions—of dollars, of fans, of accolades. But the other day, when the great quarterback Peyton Manning made it official and tearfully announced his retirement after eighteen seasons, all I could think was, “I feel your pain.” The number eighteen is familiar to me. It’s the number of seasons I…

Spring Chickens

By Lynn Slaughter / March 9, 2016 /

If we’re lucky, we all get older before we die. In our youth-obsessed culture, it’s not something many of us like to think about or perhaps even acknowledge. But denial only goes so far. Here are my observations about: Six Surefire Signs You’re Not the Spring Chicken You Once Were After watching you swim laps,…

No Words Necessary

By Lynn Slaughter / March 2, 2016 /

The call from my son came in as I drove down the highway to pick up my sixth grade grandchild. Thought I should warn you he got into big trouble today at school. He said something to a girl she really took offense to. She reported him and he ended up spending the day in…

A Better Question

By Lynn Slaughter / February 25, 2016 /

We meet someone at a cocktail party, and one of our first questions is apt to be “What do you do?” By that, we usually mean, “Where do you work?” and “What’s your job?” Whether the answer is accountant or domestic goddess, we tend to make certain assumptions about that person. Aha, we say, the…

Still My Mom

By Lynn Slaughter / February 17, 2016 /

When I was twelve, my single parent dad remarried. I was ecstatic beyond belief. My new stepmom was warm, caring, and fun-loving. Best of all, she was the first parent I’d ever had who wanted the job. It didn’t matter that most of the other kids in seventh grade thought it was babyish to hang…

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