Where the ordinary and the anything-but-ordinary collide Two years ago today, I was pacing. Wandering. Killing time. Wired on I-don’t-know-how-many cups of coffee, but exhausted from “sleeping” in a hospital recliner – that didn’t stay reclined – the night before. My husband and my son were both in surgery, at the same time. Mark to […]
In defense of independent kids There are lots of things that communities fight over. New developments, new laws, changes to governmental structures, taxes, taxes, taxes. But when Mark and I were on a long bike ride the other day, I was struck by the number of signs I saw posted in yards in an eastern […]
There are bone fragments. Sometimes teeth. Maybe a metal button from a scrap of clothing. A lot of this sits in boxes in office buildings in Santiago. Some, the few that have been identified, are buried in gravesites or treasured as memorials by family members. But most people have nothing. I’m talking about the disappeared […]
or What People Missed While Glued to #OceanGate This was certainly not in the list of things I had intended to write about. Words like “submersible” and #OceanGate and “catastrophic implosion” being nowhere near my most used on any given day. And actually, that’s not really what I’m going to write about. I’m going to […]
alternately titled Chronic Post-Traumatic Deformity That’s what I have. According to a March 2022 MRI of my right leg, ankle and foot: Chronic post-traumatic deformity. I read it right there in the doctor’s report on MyChart. And I laughed out loud, because what else can you do? I sort of feel like I should have […]
When I was in the 8th grade, I existed at the center of a tight crew of girlfriends who happened to be extremely talented. There was an artist, a pianist, a violinist and a singer. One was an accomplished ballerina and another could excel at any sport she tried. I didn’t have a “thing” that was […]
Well, it did not come to pass. The circle hasn’t been fully closed, Allende’s dying promise has not finally come true. Chile’s proposed constitution failed. And failed big. It wasn’t actually a surprise that it failed since recent polls had increasingly showed discontent on behalf of the public. But the wide margin is surprising — […]
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 1973, Chile’s democratically elected president Salvador Allende Gossens addressed the people of his nation by radio one final time. His country’s rightwing military had launched a coup d’etat that morning and the presidential palace was under attack. Allende knew his options were limited. The coup’s leaders offered him […]
Whoever said “The days are long, but the years are short” was not lying. I probably complained the day this picture was taken. I was chaperoning a field trip for my son’s preschool class to our local Nature Center, complete with muddy hike and requisite rain. The date stamp tells me it was the spring […]
There is nothing natural about a baby with cancer. I think pretty much everyone would agree with that. But taking care of a baby with cancer is actually a completely natural, extraordinarily ordinary act. It is everything you do when taking care of a baby without cancer, just multiplied in both practice and reverence. You […]