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Essays by Karen Anderson

For 30 years, writer Karen Anderson was a columnist for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. She's contributed weekly essays to Interlochen Public Radio since 2005. Listen for her on Fridays during Morning Edition at 6:32 and 8:32 a.m. Her essays are archived here.
  • When I was 23 years old, I went to Europe for the first time with some women friends. None of us had much money but one of us had a book promising we could live on “Five Dollars a Day.” We also chose Icelandic Airlines because it was the cheapest.
  • I think about how people used to try hard to last things. Today, almost everything is disposable. And I leave his shop wishing we could last more...
  • I had heard about the Hindu belief in “sacred cows” and thought the whole idea rather strange and certainly unhygienic. Now I was sharing a sidewalk with them. Now I was watching a lovely woman touch the cow and touch her forehead in reverence. I could feel something shift in the baggage of my assumptions.
  • I grew up in a family where invitations came with expectations so mostly we accepted whether we wanted to attend or not. It wasn’t a recipe for a good time and I didn’t want to keep doing it.
  • I am carrying my old desk lamp into the elegant lighting store, trying to slip past the crystal chandeliers on my way to the repairs department. Standing in line, I stare at the clutter of parts I can’t even identify.
  • My husband and I were recently talking about a trip we made to Scotland, so I grabbed my travel journal and looked for details.