Essays
The Search for the Enchanted Valley
by Michael T. Jermyn A few years ago while cruising around in my battered Volvo looking for interesting relics to photograph, I discovered a beautiful valley. A place so magnificent and untouched I couldn’t believe that I had never found it before as it was relatively close to home. It was just a narrow valley, yet [...]
Driving in Mud Season
Driving in Mud Season by Colette Kelly This spring I discovered the sensation of feeling the bottom of my car (OK, my mom’s car) scrape against ridges in the road, as the wheels slithered deeper and deeper into deep, squishy ruts. For the first time, I felt the inevitable slip and slide of a [...]
Toward a Sustainable Regional Cinema
by Jay Craven My new film, Northern Borders, marks the completion of my quintet of films based on fiction by Northeast Kingdom writer Howard Frank Mosher. I live in the Kingdom and began this journey 26 years ago, when I tried to option the rights for Disappearances, which were tied up. So, I set my [...]
Of Dogs and People: City Residents Discuss the Rights of Canines in Hubbard Park
by Ivan Shadis Questions about the fair use of Hubbard Park have recently been raised, as the drama surrounding a survey concerned with dog aggression in the park, issued by the Parks Commission this winter, continues to unfold. Has one group, specifically dog walkers, grown too large and unruly, and are they in danger of [...]
ESSAY: To View or Not to View: A Preview of Promising Films
by John O’Brien As shoppers, why do we pick one product over another? If we know the product and like it, that’s one thing, but what makes us select, when given the choice, unknown A instead of unknown B? Looking through the 16th Annual Green Mountain Film Festival’s catalog of coming attractions, I circled the [...]
ESSAY: Into the Heart of Yoga
by Anjali Budreski When I began a regular and committed yoga practice 18 years ago, I was looking for relief from stress, tension and the busyness and uncertainties of life and looking for a calm island of peace and bliss in the midst of life’s inevitable storms. I was living in Massachusetts at the time, [...]
ESSAY: Lessons from a Breast Cancer Survivor
by Lori Barg It was almost 20 years ago when a friend helped me recognize the malignant melanoma I had on a funny lump. After surviving that, a few years later, in my late 40s, my then partner found a lump in my breast. I called a friend who is a three-decade breast cancer survivor. [...]
ESSAY: Coping with a Preexisting Condition
Editor’s note: When The Bridge put out a call for people to write about their personal experiences with the health care system, one respondent with a complicated medical condition requested anonymity. Given the circumstances, we agreed that the piece should be anonymous. I have had a chronic illness since I was a preteen. This illness [...]
Health & Wellness—The Price of Life: Can We Afford It?
After my dad died, my brother and I visited his corpse, as it lay on the platform, in the funeral home in Brandon. Two days had passed since I had flown back from California. He seemed at rest, finally. He had avoided hospitals for years, knowing that the doctor would tell him to quit drinking, [...]
The Power of Words
by Mary Mello RU listening? Maybe you’ve noticed that our language appears to be shrinking. In a world that increasingly relies on the shorthand of e-mail and texting, we may be losing our interest in complex language. What will happen to our ability to think, as well as to write, if we no longer feel [...]