BFFs in Boston

I really love my teeny tiny apartment. I do wish I had a larger kitchen and maybe a guest room, but it really is a perfect size for Nathan and I.

Here are some of Barbara Kingsolver's thoughts on small houses that she expressed during Duke's commencement one year:

"The rule of 'success' has traditionally meant having boatloads of money. But we are not really supposed to put it in a boat. A house would (be) the customary thing. Ideally it should be large, with a lot of bathrooms … but no more than four people. If two friends come over during approved visiting hours, the two children have to leave. The bathroom-to-resident ratio should at all times remain greater than one. I'm not making this up; I'm just observing, it's more or less my profession. … Rethink the big, lonely house as a metaphor for success. You are in a perfect position to do that. You've probably spent very little of your recent life in a freestanding unit with a bathroom-to-resident ratio of greater than one. … As you leave here, remember what you loved most in this place. … The way you lived, in close and continuous contact. This is an ancient human social construct that once was common in this land. We called it a community."