generations- Page 4

For years, the elevator in my doctor’s Cambridge office building carried patients safely up and down six floors. When COVID arrived, it was no longer safe. Every stranger’s breath was filled with fearful possibility, and even wearing masks, we stood too closely…

Somewhere up in my 12-year-old daughter’s bedroom, buried within the piles of stuff that tend to accumulate in a preteen’s personal space, is a copy of Terry Pratchett’s young adult novel, “The Shepherd’s Crown.” There’s a bookmark in it, about two-thirds of…

Day after day after day, the new library rises with exemplary efficiency. All those who put this massive project together—on budget and on time—need a medal and a bonus in a world that usually awards neither. Watching it go up, I feel…

Is it possible for teens to be “not political” in today’s day and age? It feels like every news app and social media platform is constantly blasting us with information about a new federal policy, international crisis, or judicial decision with major…

The Girl Scouts in Belmont Center didn’t mind the weather; they were wearing mittens. The Scout mother who shepherded them was wearing ear muffs. On this raw winter morning, they were running on entrepreneurial steam, excellent saleswomen, and business was good. They…

The week before February break had been very stressful, and I’d been looking forward to a visit up to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire to see my dad and sister. When I texted my sister, Erin (yes, “Eric and Erin,” I know) to see…