On this you might rely: there are times when magic, mayhem and the mandate of your days gather themselves together and will make a claim upon your attention. If good fortune and good timing prevail, those times won't be lost on us. Generally the visitation is a subtle one, and so it can happen...

At the Orphan Wisdom School I teach with one weather eye on the rhythm of the kitchen. That means that I time the ebb and flow of my teaching day to the menu awaiting the scholars and to the considerable labours that underwrite it. For a few minutes early in the morning I stand...

Whoever is in charge these days might consider combing the populace for anyone still alive that has a reliable memory that goes back to the 1950's or 60's. A little later would be even better. Those rememberers should be given a stipend for life, and their only job would be to bear faithful witness...

Being the subject of a documentary film is not employment for the faint of heart, nor is it for those with average skin density. The camera catches you in odd moments - at least you hope they’re odd. It portrays you sporting questionable discretion sometimes, and dubious lucidity at other times. It makes...

There comes a time in the epic saga of parenting when you have to decide whether you’ll introduce kids to darkness, so that something of the mysteries of having a human life could be their companion, or whether you’ll let the world do that for you, so that they could be challenged for years...

I don't know when I stopped being a young person, or when I started being something else. I do know that I never chose that particular ending, and that it ended anyway. The whole thing is mysterious: when do you begin turning into what you are now? And how would you know? And how...

Watch Stephen's address at the Compassionate Choices conference speaking about the The Skill of Brokenheartedness: Euthanasia, Palliative Care and Power.

The last ice age surely had its way with our corner of the world. They say the ice sheet was a mile or more thick here, which is a mind boggling verticality. It is almost beyond imagining that anything could emerge from that frozen compression with the ability to grow, but it did. Within...

One of the running prejudices that shows no sign of fatigue or going away in the corner of the world I know something about is the idea that all, or most, of our principal lunacies and strategies for self defeat live in our cities. Cities, full of operatic potential and wizardry, are our crazy...

Stephen Jenkinson on CBC's Fear Itself with Christy Ann Conlin Listen in on Christy Ann Conlin's interview with Stephen Jenkinson on CBC's radio show, Fear Itself. The show will be broadcast on Monday, August 13 at 7:30 PM and on Thursday August 16th at 9:30 AM. (All times Eastern Standard Time). The show will also...