Recently, a friend asked me why I wasn't climbing higher. I probably gave him a sarcastic look before responding, “Because I don't trust these damn devices!” I'm talking about auto-belays, those contraptions that are supposed to lower you safely from a climbing wall. I've actually climbed all the way back down a wall rather than trust one to lower me. Fuggedaboudit. I was pretty active in my early, spry young adult years. These days, middle-aged me comes home from the gym just happy I didn't...

In. Two letters. Such a nothing word with so much significance. I recently came across a writing prompt by author Ed Park called This Is How Memory Works. Park describes a time when he felt depleted creatively, professionally, and personally. After writing two ambitious novels that hadn't found publishers, he wondered whether he had any words left. Turns out he had one: In. He began collecting fragments of memories, observations, and everyday moments, each beginning with that word. He didn't...

Taking turns in school. Playing by the rules during a fierce neighborhood game of hide-and-seek or Mother, May I? Growing up, the message was pretty straightforward: Play by the rules and you'll be rewarded. Study hard. Keep your friends' secrets. (I really excelled at that one.) Don't date your friends' exes. Help others. Those rules seemed to work pretty well for me. But then there were the times I didn't play by the rules. And yes, people got mad. I remember trying to obtain data from...