Commentary

Learned at My Father’s Feet

March 27, 2012 •

I took care of my father near the end of his life, as dementia slowly unraveled the strong and proud man I had known. His memories faded, his body failed him — and yet his heart was full of grace. By Kae Dickson

Commentary

The Road Less Traveled

February 27, 2012 •

With a pack, a duffel bag, and a handful of Spanish words, I had hitched my way up the road to Cuba’s northern coast. But now it was getting dark, no more cars were stopping, and I needed to find a place to sleep. By Lita Wong

Commentary

Girl’s Best Friend

January 5, 2012 •

Lessons on embracing life, from the dogs. By Rebecca Leisher

Commentary

In Exile

December 20, 2011 •

How I learned to walk away. By Nicole Cipri

Commentary

Toasting Poe

February 1, 2010 •

A dreary midnight when a yearly visitor was “nothing more.” By Cynthia Pelayo

Commentary

From the Inner City to Indonesia

March 2, 2009 •

Teaching has its rewards, challenges everywhere. Story and photos by Colette S. Coleman

Commentary

The Indian in the classroom

March 2, 2009 •

Keeping kids politically correct. Story and photos by Suzanne Farrell

Commentary

Alone in the Forest

May 6, 2007 •

Discovering the kindness of strangers in Cuba. By Lita Wong

Commentary

Covergirl

April 2, 2006 •

When a beauty ideal meets the real. By Kimberlee Soo

Editor's Blog

It's hard to think of another role with as much impact as being a mother and father. For almost every other position, we are replaceable in the long term. Someone else will do our job, for better or worse, if we're not there to do it. Someone else will eventually start our company or make our invention or sketch out our idea. Maybe it won't happen for a long time; maybe it would have happened earlier, if we weren't around to slow things down. But eventually, society makes progress, and the niches of innovation — in business or technology, art or politics — are filled.

The stories we're featuring on the site now touch upon the impact that fathers have — even in their absence. In Learned at My Father's Feet, Kae Dickson remembers her experience caring for her "Daddy" at the end of his life, as dementia robbed him of his memories and independence. In A Circle, Broken, Amy O'Loughlin reviews a family memoir by CNN journalist Mark Whitaker, who describes his complicated relationship with his absentee father, an African American scholar who blazed trails only to see his career burn out amid his struggles with alcoholism.

This week the magazine is featuring a trio of articles about prisons, real and psychological. In Freed, but Scarred, Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald describes the post-prison lives of three men who spent, among them, forty-three years in New York penitentiaries for crimes they did not commit. In an accompanying photo essay, Life after Innocence, Dana Ullman presents intimate portraits of the three men and their families, still scarred by absences and regrets. Finally, in Across Oceans, Haunted by Memories, Susan M. Lee reviews the novel "The Reeducation of Cherry Truong," a tale of two Vietnamese families flung across the globe, chased by their war-era remembrances of traumas endured and wrongs perpetrated — at times, on each other.