We don’t have to go looking for nature — it’s coming to us — In late afternoon, dark clouds slowly rolled in. They hovered, seemingly unmoving, blocking more and more sun as they thickened the sky. An evening thunderstorm was forecast. After dinner I lay on the couch, reading, when I heard the first grumblings of thunder. Lightning flashed. …

From singles to divorcees, collectively we are struggling to define what we need and want from long-term partners. — Lover, best friend, roommate, co-parent, sous chef, travel partner, chore sharer, driver (or driving companion), travel agent, accountant, general contractor, therapist, tax preparer, life coach, gym buddy, someone to go to the movies with…and anything else you can think of. Do we really expect the same person to know how…

What once was pure joy and pleasure is now fraught with worry and consequence. Yet for women, that’s always been the case. — During the height of pandemic isolation, the year between the arrival of Covid-19 and getting vaccinated, I wondered, as I spent day after day and night after night alone, without seeing anyone, without touching anyone, what first-time post-pandemic sex would be like. How it would feel to be in the…

The sexual revolution is still being fought. With attacks on contraception looming, the battle has arrived at our bedrooms. Men, myself included, have long taken for granted the responsibility (not to mention the expense and physical imposition) for birth control. To be blunt, the most I’ve ever had to do…

Mass shootings are the symptoms. The diseases are misogyny and extremism. The linguistic metaphor falls like a cruel joke. After the devastating, demoralizing, horrifying, enraging Uvalde school shooting, elected officials in Texas referenced a law they passed in 2019 allowing districts to “harden” their schools. Don’t these officials know any…

Jews in America are facing antisemitism at levels unexperienced in our lifetimes, adding to a precarious sense of isolation. It had to be pointed out to the FBI that a gunman taking a rabbi and four other Jews praying during a Sabbath service at a synagogue constitutes an attack “related…

Laws imposing forced births strip away self-determination— creating a two-tiered society of who does and doesn’t have bodily autonomy. People who have had an abortion are yet again telling their stories in public. …

From climate change to electrical grids to our jobs, our diets and our homes, it can be humbling to realize how little power we really have. I didn’t have the Texas winter storm that bad. In fact I was remarkably lucky. It could have been so much worse. In June…

The scope of a mother’s love is so much bigger than I ever knew — and it’s changed how I’ve loved. — At first come the logistics. Dates on weekday nights, or carved out of weekend mornings or afternoons, when the child is with his or her dad. In the case of a toddler, perhaps coming over after bedtime, but not spending the night. The chance of an earlier-than-expected wake-up, or perhaps…