Molarity Classic: 170-174
By Michael Molinelli '82
For all the Notre Dame nostalgia alumni experience, certainly no one misses class registration.
News » Archives » December 2012
Kindness from grief
By Tara Hunt '12
What can we possibly do as a society to grieve, especially for a crime that has no obvious explanation? What can we do to help others grieve? To help the families grieve? How do we put the next foot forward? How do we send our children to school, our parents to work? How do we walk through the grocery store and trust we’re safe? What do we do to recover some hope, some faith in the future, some reason to keep going?
Soundings: Tomorrow and the next day
By Kerry Temple '74
The Tarkington School Christmas show was my first time to walk through school hallways since the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. There were ghosts there, too. I doubt I was the only parent who wasn’t haunted by what had happened at just such a school, in hallways just like these, in classrooms so universally familiar — with rows of desks and posters and student artwork and all the seasonal decorations that make a school feel cheerier than home.
The Playroom: $300 Christmas presents
By Maraya Steadman '89, '90MBA
Once upon a time in my children’s life, I was the most powerful person on Earth. I fed them and changed their diapers and controlled when they got to watch Thomas or Teletubbies. When it came time for Christmas I bought them stuffed Pooh bears and adorable, soft, fluffy polar bears, dolls and trains, play kitchens and plastic food. The toys made me happy; they made my kids happy.
Aftermath of Sandy Hook
By Liam Farrell '04
Everyone has a story of an event that first brought the world to bear on them. Luckily, for most of us, we grapple with the larger meaning of tremendous national or international tragedy as secondhand spectators. Our suffering as an audience pales to those directly involved and is a background tapestry to our more personal sorrows.
Of parking and waiting
By John Nagy '00 M.A.
Trying to park one’s car in the D2 lots east of Grace Hall is tricky at any time of year. But in December it calls to mind our human need for the Advent season — a time to slow down and hope for salvation, or at least promised relief from the world and its cares.
Saint So and So
By David McGrath
At first, Kenneth wanted to brag on it, and Pat, another brother, said I was in the right. But later, after learning the group had come back looking for us with broken bottles and pipes, Pat and Kenneth got really quiet. Nothing like this had ever happened, and certainly not at Christmas.
Santa's mistakes
By Meg Morrison '13
Not all toys are created equal, however, and we occasionally ended up with some of the elves’ mistakes. As every parent knows, toys aren’t always what they seem on TV — and St. Nick doesn’t always know what’s best.
Molarity Redux: The end of the world as we know it, Part 4
By Michael Molinelli '82
Aha! So that’s how the Mayan calendar works.
Unbalanced: Oh Christmas list
By Carol Schaal ’91M.A.
I’ve saved Christmas lists going back to 1991, so I can make sure I’m not buying friends and relatives the same gift I bought them a year or even 20 years ago.
The new Lou: Part III
By Ted Mandell '86
It’s finals week here at Notre Dame. For me, it’s time to wrap up my three-year creative thesis on Brian Kelly and Lou Holtz.
The Playroom: Sick day
By Maraya Steadman '89, '90MBA
Being a parent may be one of the toughest jobs there is, if you exclude being a coal miner, any sort of day labor in the hot sun, jobs where you pick up road kill, tasks where you are chained to someone else, anything that involves getting up before 6 in the morning, or driving a school bus filled with 8th graders. But at least with those jobs there are employee benefits — there are no such things with parenting.
Far afield: Hei5man
By Jason Kelly '95
Manti Te’o is the main character in a bedtime story that helps everyone involved with college football sleep at night. He’s a great player, he seems like one of the all-time good guys and he endured traumatic personal losses this season with inspiring grace. But that doesn’t make him a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Molarity Classic: 165-169
By Michael Molinelli '82
A healthy marriage is based on love and parietals.
Life as We Know It
By Michael J. Crowe ’58 and Christopher M. Graney
From the beginning the human race has scanned the heavens for the meaning of our existence and signs of creatures living far, far away. The search itself says a lot about who we are.
Their faces open with joy
By Emily Dagostino '02
Approximately 150 cells floating in a sac of fluid and burrowed into my uterus are multiplying at an astounding rate toward viable life. Assuming I carry this pregnancy to term, it will be the first time I give birth. It won’t, however, be my first child.