by Michelle Tocher | Apr 28, 2022
A few days ago, I started humming a tune. It wanted words, and so I started singing, “What on earth am I meant to do?” The song had an ancient, mournful spirit, as if were a lost hope looking for light during these troubled times. I stood up from my chair and walked...
by Michelle Tocher | Apr 16, 2022
I’d like to dedicate this story “No Speak,” to my friend Ellen Jaffe, who passed on March 16, 2022, and will be missed dearly by many shining spirits. No Speak No Speak is a remarkable child. She’s about four years old. She has a large, round head...
by Michelle Tocher | Mar 25, 2022
In his book, The Practice of Dream Healing, Edward Tick writes: …in our contemporary moral vacuum, public figures seem to see it as their duty to resist and deny the need for shriving. Shriving. It’s an old word, so unused and unpracticed that it has slipped out of...
by Michelle Tocher | Feb 10, 2022
In his book, Mirror rorriM, Mark Pendergrast takes us on a time-travelling tour of the looking glass, and he’s left me enthralled by the impact that mirrors have had on human societies. Pendergrast is mostly interested in the development of the mirror as a...
by Michelle Tocher | Dec 12, 2021
Lately I’ve been reading Maria Tatar’s new book The Heroine with 1,001 Faces. It came to me in the mail several weeks ago, a gift from my friend Jean Sheppard, who just knew I’d be all over it. For decades I’ve been disheartened by the way the fairy tale...
