“Did the dentist hurt you when he drilled your tooth to remove the cavity?” “Yes.” “Did he harm you?” “No, he made me feel better.” “Hurt and harm are different,” I pointed out. “When you ate the sugar that gave you the cavity, did that hurt?” “No, it tasted good,” he...

When I was around twelve, I recall meeting a beautiful older woman in an airport. Somehow, we began discussing ballet. She asked me questions about dance and I shared about my newly acquired pointe shoes and my love of ballet. I recall her as being so elegant and...

My mom enjoys science fiction. She used to watch episodes of the TV show “Star Trek”. When an enemy vessel would approach, the captain would say “shields up” and some sort of force field would be employed to protect the ship. I had difficulty even writing that...