i I’m about to have life-saving surgery, but the hospital’s administration refused to ensure I get both COVID-19 doses ahead of time. I meet New York State’s vaccination eligibility requirements. They do say the wing where I’ll be staying is

A member of my writing group recently sought to defend a character for blaming his bad behavior on a woman character’s provocative clothes: “He’s obviously mad at her for the sequined dress stunt, but shouldn’t he be?” "That doesn't justify rape,"

Why do I suddenly think of that chilly Boston evening forty or so years ago? A friend of mine named Tim and I were visiting a married couple, friends of his. She played hostess while her husband stayed glued to his recording of Mozart’s Marriage of

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” That’s the Lord Henry Wotton character speaking in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey. I think of my father who, as he approached ninety, insisted he felt no different

A white woman friend was recently on the subway when a black man sat next to her with his mask lowered just below his nose. A senior citizen who takes every precaution to avoid infection from COVID-19, she stood and walked to an empty seat at the

One serene early spring evening, I was walking with my white cane on a path through the Amherst College campus when I encountered the author, Robert Stone. I was taking a course of his, albeit not for credit and I’d never spoken a word in class. It