Sunday, February 9, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Valentine's Day makes the heart sink
Once upon a time, when you and I were young, Valentine's Day was simple and sweet.

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Tragedy muted until we know the players
As grief goes, it's aloof, like the surprised sadness you'd feel if you learned a half-brother you never knew had died 10 states away.

Sunday, February 2, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Parents turn sorrow into others' hope
When Herbert Ouida put his 18-year-old son on a plane for the University of Michigan, he couldn't help but marvel and smile.

Thursday, January 30, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Neighbors wonder about war
This village of about 650 year-round residents votes overwhelmingly Republican. Most of us are affluent or at least comfortable. And every morning a few dozen of us take turns sitting at the two old, worn oak tables in the town's bakery to talk about the news of our homes, our neighborhoods and the world.

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Little quirks give shape to our legacies
A boy does not grow up longing to invent a weird animal that looks like a rabbit with horns. But life unfolds, and turning points happen while you're not looking, and then you die, and folks remember you by that one crazy thing.

Sunday, January 26, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Enough talk; dialogue can do some good
Talk is self-centered. It lobs odd vegetables into the air, an onion here, a potato scrap there, a chunk of old gnarled carrot. Dialogue holds hands to gather up those bits and turn them into soup.

Thursday, January 23, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Trip is one stop away from disaster
Early in my journey, a snowplow clearing the shoulder spit a stone at my windshield.

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Throw words back before they can hurt
Our friend Kathy skipped out of a college faculty meeting early in order to help her sister move into her new Novi home.

Sunday, January 19, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Execution: A promise not fulfilled
Linda White isn't sure why she healed except she chose to, knowing that rage and bitterness would cost too much.

Thursday, January 16, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Open adoption goes straight to the heart
We admired them for quickly conceding defeat in their effort to get pregnant by spending lots of money and anxiety on some remote, high-tech conception.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Maybe enough stuff really is too much
Every one of the three newspapers Carol Orr reads says the same thing: Holiday sales were dismal.

Sunday, January 12, 2003

SUSAN AGER: A thank-you that Grandma didn't expect
Christmas is more than two weeks behind us, dead as a dried-up cookie, forgotten like the silver strands of tinsel that fell behind the couch.

Thursday, January 9, 2003

SUSAN AGER: A man who just can't live on $145,000
Last month, while Republicans scrambled to prove they're not racists, a man named Nicholas Calio was able to quietly quit his White House job for a god-awful reason.

Tuesday, January 7, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Governor curtsies to tradition
Mary Dettloff skipped her boss's inaugural festivities because she didn't want to wear the right clothes.

Sunday, January 5, 2003

SUSAN AGER: Time to mend body, spirit, relationships
Anxiety about whether either one will ever feel good again, this being my fourth round of hand repairs. Anxiety about an inevitable war. Anxiety about worldwide rage against us. Anxiety about smallpox and melting ice fields and genetic tomfoolery and financial skullduggery and the edgy uncertainty of our futures.

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

SUSAN AGER: Restaurant welcomed in poet unaware
Hungry and far from home, I headed for the hotel restaurant, aglitter with Christmas, when an unlikely embrace in the lobby caught my eye.

Sunday, December 22, 2002

SUSAN AGER: Let us open our hearts to strangers
They titled their book "Radical Hospitality," and I thought for sure it would implore me to invite the homeless to Christmas dinner.

Sunday, December 1, 2002

SUSAN AGER: List provided an enriching experience
As I left my favorite restaurant, the bartender called out to me, "Did you see your name at the top of the list?"

Sunday, November 24, 2002

SUSAN AGER: Jesus' wheels intrigue ministers
At first, the answer seems obvious: Something small, humble, quiet and clean.

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

SUSAN AGER: First we ask: Will it make me feel good?
Our calories must be conserved to bulk up our bodies. We must not waste them on unnecessary work. We must not waste them even fidgeting on hard, wooden pews.

Sunday, November 17, 2002

SUSAN AGER: Let us use all our stuff, even messy diapers
Let us gather together this Sunday morning to thank the Lord for those among us who can look into a pail of dirty diapers and see promise.

Thursday, November 14, 2002

SUSAN AGER: Anonymity a myth for toking judge
You'd think you could hide in the dark at a rock concert five hours from home.