by Toni McNaron | Apr 28, 2018 | Uncategorized
In the last weeks of outpatient treatment for alcoholism, my counselor talked to us about what was coming next. She felt it imperative that we find a weekly AA meeting that we attended no matter what. So she enjoined us to “just show up.”. If we were...
by Toni McNaron | Apr 20, 2018 | Uncategorized
My mother was an artist but she died before I was old enough to recognize that. A primary location for her to practice her art was her garden. She and Daddy had bought a bigger house and the vacant lot attached, so Mamie (what most people called my mother) decided...
by Toni McNaron | Apr 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
Because I usually can’t get myself organized to go see movies in theaters, I’m often late to see important films. So it has been with “GET OUT,” the important 2017 film directed by Jordan Peele. I just watched it on DVD in the quiet of my own...
by Toni McNaron | Apr 11, 2018 | Toni's Blog
When I began teaching at the University of Minnesota, I was in my late 20s and my students were often in their early 20s or late teens. As one way of establishing myself as their “professor,” I set up strict deadlines for handing in papers. Of course a...
by Toni McNaron | Apr 2, 2018 | Uncategorized
It was an early and violent fall. By mid-October, most leaves were down on lawns, in gutters, in the crooks of steps. The night of the 22nd, a high wind blew and rain fell hard against my face and jacket. I’d spent the evening at Karen’s apartment on...
