From the Caregiver's HAErt — Danita LaShelle Jones

“I’m sorry, you can what?” the person asked me. The question made me pause. At a dinner years ago, I found myself conversing with someone who’d seen a few of my plays. Admittedly, I was drawn to the conversation because, as a playwright, I rarely get to talk about my…

I grew up in a musical family. Because my mother was a voice teacher, piano prodigy, and arranger, and because my father is a first tenor (who recently retired from directing his choir after 50 years), my sister and I grew up in an environment where music was always…

“It doesn’t seem that big to me,” I said before I had another bite of my food. Recently, after we wrapped production at my job, our team decided to celebrate a long week of filming with a quick meal. During one of our conversations, we started discussing the…

Math and I were not friends. During my elementary school years, I didn’t always have a natural aptitude for math. Whenever I talk about it, I often joke that since I’m a “creative” and creativity isn’t an exact science, a subject like math can be a headache solely because there’s…

Peyton Manning: Whether football fans like his teams or not, most of them will acknowledge he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL. I am one of those fans, but I never had a favorite team as much as I had a favorite quarterback. While I…

It’s one of Kristen Wiig’s most memorable “Saturday Night Live” characters and probably one of her most relatable. During her seven-year tenure as a cast member on the show, Wiig popularized a hilarious and slightly annoying character named Penelope. The sketches’ premise was pretty simple: During a seemingly innocuous gathering,…

For most people, the news came as a shock. During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the most decorated gymnast in the world, Simone Biles, made a startling announcement. Aside from experiencing mental fatigue, she was suffering from what gymnasts refer to as “the twisties”: a dangerous condition in which an athlete…

“You sound terrible,” my friend told me. She was correct. I was in my sixth week of a dry, wheezing cough. A cold I caught from one of my children quickly became an upper respiratory infection that terribly exacerbated my asthma. I was diagnosed with asthma in 2023, so I…

“You volunteered me to do what?” In 2016, our oldest son came home from school excited about an international festival taking place there in a few days. His class chose the country of Nepal. Students could make flags and posters or write a short essay on the country. But our…

“Oh, that’s why they’re bad,” is what we’re supposed to say. The last decade has seen a rise in popularity of fictional villain origin stories. Whether it’s a segment in a movie about the hero of the story or a full feature film, many franchises have begun rewriting the history…

My screenwriting class sat in stunned silence as they stared at the picture on the screen. Finally, light chuckles filtered through the room. “Whenever you think someone has already done it,” I said to them, “remember this picture.” On the screen was the infamous meme of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson…

There wasn’t a person on earth who knew more than I did at my 38th week of pregnancy. That’s what I thought, at least. With an incredible OB-GYN team in my city, a sister who served as my “virtual” obstetrician before that was even a thing, an overly attentive husband,…