I am not particularly interested in outer space. 

This feels like a confession. For someone my age—Gen X, raised on rockets and Reagan and the promise of “the final frontier”—I’m aware this borders on heresy. We were in sixth grade when Christa McAuliffe boarded the Challenger and never came back. People my age remember exactly where they were when they watched it happen. My husband does. I don’t.

There’s a recent ridiculous trend about being “Very demure. Very mindful.”

I don’t know the context, but you don’t have to, to get that someone is poking fun at our society at large.

If we feel disconnected, it's not because we are a mess, but because the world is (by design) upside down. It's because disconnection- is a feature, not a bug.

Much of my father’s wisdom comes in the form of a story, but sometimes he shares a joke. What was considered a joke in our family was nuanced in humor and overt in a life lesson.