Becoming a parent is always going to be a default setting. I truly believe there will always be more people who want to have children than who don't.
We use our gadgets for distraction and entertainment. We use them to avoid work while giving the impression that we're actually working hard.
Other dogs may do their jobs in their own unique and perfectly wonderful ways, but there will always be that dog that no dog will replace, the dog that will make you cry even when it's been gone for more years than it could ever have lived.
Much of the magic of language, of course, lies in its fluidity.
The reason it was so bruising when someone said I was from a rich family is that, like many of us, I'm deeply invested - probably overly so - in the myth of my own self-creation. I like to believe that I got where I am, such as it is, by working hard and charting my own course.
