Category Archives: Sweet Sorrow

Troubled teen boy

Teen Brains, Under Construction

Part of the dramatic tension in Romeo & Juliet is that the audience can predict negative consequences for the title characters’ rash decisions. Why don’t they stop and think instead of jumping to conclusions? Partly because their teenaged brains are still in the process of developing, not ready for life-and-death choices.

Close up of writing in a journal and a rose

When the Words Stopped

Diane Ackerman, author of “Love’s Vocabulary,” fell head-over-heels for her eventual husband, author Paul West, on their first date. But in 2003, West suffered a stroke that robbed him of language. Ackerman chronicled his recovery and their evolving relationship in the book One Hundred Names for Love.