The Nature of Marriage was broadcast on Vermont Public Radio on September 1, 2009, the day that Vermont’s first-in-the-nation Marriage Equity Law went into effect, making marriage a right, not a privilege. Regardless, marriage is still hard work.               My parents were married on my mother’s twenty-first birthday—not because they were eloping, but because […]

The profound devastation caused by Tropical Storm Irene continues to inspire lessons in recovery. This commentary was originally broadcast on the stations of Vermont Public Radio on the second anniversary of the storm. On the morning of Sunday, August 28, 2011, I pulled on a pair of boots and walked out into the rain. The Rock River […]

When the late Dan Darrow was running for the state legislature in my district in 1996, he handed out a campaign brochure with the recipe for his famous blueberry pie. His opponent accused him of offering pie in the sky. For years, I kept the recipe for Darrow’s Famous Blueberry Pie taped inside my pantry […]