Last week, I participated in an online writing class with Pam Houston. Pam’s work is witty and important, and I savored her soul-stirring memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country—which, come to think of it, could easily serve as the title of my own memoir-in-progress.

Dear Friends, I’ve been thinking about connections a lot lately. How much we need them. How we maintain them. How to restore them, one link at a time. For me, the pandemic has been a paradox. I’ve appreciated the respite at times—less traffic, fewer places to go, our complicated emotions hidden behind masks.