The last introvert in a world of extroverts. Silence: my response to both emptiness and saturation. But silence frightens people. I had to learn how to talk. Out of politeness.

They say change gets more difficult as we get older - each year we're more stuck in our ways, more reluctant to learn something new.

I've never been socially outgoing, but I suspect I've gotten more and more ambivalent about making new friends. I'm irritated by how-do-you-do chit-chat, but that's how new relationships usually begin.

I'm sure there were plenty of loving, attentive mothers in the 'me generation,' but none of them lived at my house.

I've been thinking about disowning some of my genes lately. I have a few healthy, happy, long-living optimists in my family tree - most of them fans of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, a major champion of positive thinking. But I've got plenty of ancestors who played out more tortured hands.

Some caregivers want to reciprocate the care they themselves received as children.

Artists and writers have to understand and live the truth that what we are doing is nourishing the world.