“In a time when community was hard to come by, I was finding it with people from all over--people I never would have encountered in my previous life.”

Lifelong love, memory, and the things that stay with us. To start the holidays, we're mixing it up this week with a little audio drama, a reading of a short story based on the grandparents we heard about in episode 13.

What is the most important stuff we have to go through isn't stuff at all? Before the holidays, Laura takes us to an empty house in Nebraska, where the most important things she found weren't in the boxes she unpacked, but the legacy left behind.

“If I had the choice between all those things, or feeling the high of loving the work that I'm doing, I would pick loving my work. I'd pick that high first, because if you don't have that, then you just have a job.”

“What I was not prepared for was how Zoom classes would turn my kids into forgetful, lethargic grouches. I have lots to say about the challenges of distance learning, but the truth is our school troubles predate the pandemic.”