Amanda Parrish Morgan

This cartoon was about a friendly, magical dragon having nautical adventures, but it filled me with a terrible sense of dread, not unlike the feeling I had when a policeman came to talk with us about strangers in vans with candy or a fireman came to remind us to craft an escape plan should our house catch fire.

For the past 18 years, my dad and I have run in the local Turkey Trot together. Holiday rituals make it almost impossible to ignore the passage of time.