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Building gates
The gate pictured here may look like an ordinary (and pretty rudimentary) entrance to a fenced yard. But talk to the owner (Richard) and he'll tell you it's really the gate to heaven, which is what he calls his home. Actually, make that Heaven, since the existence of a home owned by him shelters such an essential element of his happiness – of his life – that it deserves a proper noun, a name. Richard grew up in an institution from age 6 to age 21 because “experts” at the
Sharon Emery
Sep 26, 20252 min read
The power of saying “I'm here”
Visiting the wild, craggy shores of Lake Superior not long ago, I lost sight of my son, who even in his adulthood prefers the path less...
Sharon Emery
Jul 21, 20252 min read
Homegrown friendships complete the circle
World Enders and us at Red Rocks Parents measure their children's success in the world in so many ways. Achievements at school and work...
Sharon Emery
Jun 26, 20252 min read
Chainsaw Mama
When I asked for a “pink” chainsaw for Mother's Day (you'd have to know me...), my husband knew exactly what I meant: Not a saw that was...
Sharon Emery
May 8, 20252 min read
Talking. It's not for sissies.
How good are you at talking to people? You probably think you're either a good conversationalist, or not. As if it's a genetic thing;...
Sharon Emery
Mar 24, 20252 min read
Music gets us through
How many songs are there in the world? Ten million? One-hundred million? Whatever, it's a lot. And of those, how many are widely popular? More mysteriously, what accounts for that popularity? This is on my mind because Valentine's Day is near, and music fans are loading up their devices with songs they love. Among them is what has become a perennial fave, “The Night We Met.” Despite being released 10 years ago – and tracking the story of a romantic breakup – it continue
Sharon Emery
Feb 12, 20252 min read
Making it would be golden
It's early, and I know a lot can happen in the next four months, but I'm putting this out there just to challenge myself in a public way: I'm working to become one of the Six Percent on June 7, 2025. On that date I will have been married to the same guy for 50 – count, 'em, fifty – years. (I expected to be gray and bent over by this time, but instead I have purple hair, wear red shoes, and follow a certain rock band on tour. Go figure...) Of all the couples married in th
Sharon Emery
Jan 25, 20252 min read
Believe in things worth believing in
It's no secret or surprise that we are in the darkest days of the year. These long nights are the way of the universe, more regular than clockwork, which is merely our rudimentary attempt at quantifying the unknowable. Out of this darkness, many world religions and belief systems offer cause for celebration, for hope, at year’s end. The human propensity toward hope often defies reason. It's a leap of faith, after all. I've been thinking about this conundrum in human reasoning
Sharon Emery
Dec 19, 20242 min read
Message to my journalist daughter, after a demoralizing campaign
Young Caitlin, leaning into her future career My husband and I wax nostalgic when we say that we came up during the golden age of...
Sharon Emery
Nov 7, 20242 min read
Surviving hurricanes. And life.
When I think of hurricanes, which I've done a lot since Helene and now Milton, I think of Steve Gleason . Steve is the former National...
Sharon Emery
Oct 8, 20242 min read
I'm Speaking, You're Listening. Got it?
I got this meme from an intern working with me back when I was vice president of a PR firm. She handed it to me with a knowing smile,...
Sharon Emery
Aug 29, 20242 min read
Do children owe parents anything?
It wasn't the story headline, or even the gripping opening sentences that grabbed me. It was the photo cutline: Vari Vati's son, Tama...
Sharon Emery
Jul 25, 20242 min read
Travel – More than just being there
I am planning a trip to the Pacific northwest with a person who has an aversion to travel. No, I'm not a masochist. I'm married....
Sharon Emery
Jun 19, 20242 min read
The Powerful Persistence of Music
Maybe for you, like me, music is the catalyst for a whole raft of memories: My inner freedom-fighter rising up to the sound of the “Les Miserables” touring company's entreaty, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”; My heart filling up to my throat when my husband harmonized with his brothers on “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” at my in-laws' basement parties; My whole body vibrating to the drums of Springsteen's “Candy's Room,” at Michigan State University's Munn Ice Arena. These songs are
Sharon Emery
May 24, 20242 min read
Do we make parenting too hard?
Amid my irrepressible joy over the recent birth of my third grandson, I immediately started worrying. Not about him; about his parents. “... the U.S. has the most family-hostile public policy of any country in the western industrialized world when it comes to supporting work and family,” sociologist Caitlyn Collins recently told Ezra Klein in a New York Times podcast. Child care is hard to find and harder yet to afford. Preschool is often not part of the public school c
Sharon Emery
Apr 26, 20242 min read
Our stories are gifts
I've spent the past two years talking about my story, as part of the tour for my memoir, “It's Hard Being You.” “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” a quote from the author Joan Didion, is the epigraph for my book, and it's been my privilege to meet many people who have amplified the truth of that statement profoundly. I'm not the only one who's come to realize that we must take what happens to us and find a place for it in our life stories. Either that, or we bu
Sharon Emery
Mar 26, 20242 min read
Grandpa's a rock star!
That headline is the description I put on this photo way back in 2013, when my husband and I were just tiptoeing into the tremendous...
Sharon Emery
Feb 26, 20242 min read
Cousinpalooza
If you're of a certain age, you may remember visits with your cousins where all kinds of mischief ensued. This was mainly due to the...
Sharon Emery
Jan 27, 20242 min read
Collecting – a lot more than just getting
I've been waiting to send this blog, hoping to save you “collectors of things” from yourselves. You know who you are, and we know what...
Sharon Emery
Jan 12, 20242 min read
When greetings grab hold
Tis the season for appreciating just how valuable – and vital – greetings are. We reflexively offer up “season's greetings” to people we meet, and greeting cards are everywhere, ensuring our greetings get to people we can't be with. But we tend to overlook the power we unleash when we do that. In our heart-felt greetings, we're sharing our joy and appreciation for another person's presence in the world. And, gulp, that can be scary. You may know someone who is reticent about
Sharon Emery
Dec 12, 20232 min read
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