In real time

This collection of personal essays deals with the ways in which objects, and the activities to which they are connected, have helped me to claim my place in the world. I am a teacher (of art education) by vocation and a writer by passion. In “Voices,” I take on my struggles to learn the craft of writing and the way in which my fear of failure mirrors the efforts and emotions of my own teaching students. The essays about running (“Shoes”) and riding (“A Horse”) focus on an enriching and exhilarating physicality—the first as a solo action and the other in harmony with a twelve-hundred-pound animal. The last essay, “Tents,” explores camping, my relationship with my daughter, the lingering damage of my childhood—and the gift of redemption.