In the penultimate episode of the Laura Dern/Mike White show Enlightened, the main character Amy scores a meeting with the CEO of Abbadon—the beauty products company where she’s held a job for 15 years. Even though Amy is leading a scheme to expose the CEO’s secret payoffs to government officials, she still accepts this meeting, … Continue reading On doing good vs. feeling powerless
Author: T Coe
On living somewhere without a sense of place
I didn’t know that a sense of place was important to me until I moved to Colorado a few years ago. It’s an odd premise—a sense of place. It’s hard, impossible even, to define precisely what I (or anyone else, for that matter) means when invoking it. But however we try to pin it down, … Continue reading On living somewhere without a sense of place
On holding your horses with big changes
When I started back at work this week, there was a small goal lurking in the back of my mind: Reformat a bunch of stuff in our InDesign templates. I'd spent some dozens of hours tooling around in InDesign over my leave and had discovered all kinds of random nitpicky things that I was excited … Continue reading On holding your horses with big changes
On George R. Stewart’s novel Storm
The jacket copy (and pretty much any blurb I could find about Storm—published by George R. Stewart’s in 1941—refers to it as the first “eco-novel.” But that term does little to capture the sprawl and scope of this strange but awesome book. With a cast of dozens (hundreds?), Stewart takes a wide-angled view of how … Continue reading On George R. Stewart’s novel Storm
On feeling (again) that time is no longer mine
The worst part of my leave ending is that with it ends a curious relationship I’d developed with time. What time is it? I often wondered over the past 10 weeks. (My five-month-old gave no response to these queries.) What day is it? I even managed to wonder a few times. My relationship to time—once … Continue reading On feeling (again) that time is no longer mine
On 7 things from last week (7/31/23)
A new deck! A finished construction project somehow makes you want to never do another big DIY project ever again and simultaneously begin brainstorming the next one. Dinosaur Ridge. Will a toddler enjoy the famous Dinosaur Ridge? Yes, if we're talking about the sandbox where the museum manager hides fake fossils for kids to find. … Continue reading On 7 things from last week (7/31/23)
On a broader definition of argument
When I hear the word “argument,” an image comes to mind. Really, a series of images. Gritted teeth. Shaking heads. Red faces. Arms crossed. Tears. Two people squaring off against each other, pits in their stomachs. Words as weapons. But that’s a limiting view of argument. I’ve been reading through, of all things, a textbook … Continue reading On a broader definition of argument
On the star names of the Big Dipper
Until the other night, I'd given hardly any thought at all to the names of the stars, aside from the very brightest or most prominent. Polaris, Vega, Arcturus. The names of the constellations, though, was a different matter. On dark nights with my wits about me, I could easily locate Orion or the Big Dipper. … Continue reading On the star names of the Big Dipper
On the anxiety of the dumpster
There may be, as I've written, joy in having a dumpster in front of you house. But there's some anxiety, too. A few nights ago, just before 10 p.m., I heard a telltale metallic BOOM. The sound could mean only one thing: someone had just thrown something into our dumpster. I flipped on our outdoor … Continue reading On the anxiety of the dumpster
On 18 things I learned building a deck over the past 11 days
Use leverage whenever possible. Walk away before you get frustrated. You can use your drill chuck to pull off stripped screws. I need to buy a crowbar. Put tools back in the same place once you’re done with them. (Otherwise you waste hours of walking around grumbling over the whereabouts of the orbital sander.) Impact … Continue reading On 18 things I learned building a deck over the past 11 days
Taylor Coe 