I remain deadlocked with my beloved alma mater, Amherst College, over its refusal to answer my question about how many blind and otherwise physically disabled students it has admitted in the past ten years. As I wrote in my July 5, 2021 essay
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Trial by Zoom Session: A Story
Moderator: Let me introduce this month’s guest, Tom Reynolds. Tom has practiced consumer law for more than fifteen years and currently has his own law firm. We’ve invited him here today to talk to us about our rights as consumers. So, Tom, welcome to
Call for Appointment at a Doctor’s Office: A Story
Automated response system: If this is an emergency, hang up immediately and dial 911. If you are a hospital or doctor, press 1 because your call is important to us. If you are calling to make your first appointment with this office, press 2. If you
“I Think,” Therefore I Listen
A book review I just encountered from six decades ago uses the phrase “I think” not once, but twice. Such a concession to subjectivity isn’t only rare today, but even frowned on. It shouldn’t be. “I think” might make the world a kinder, gentler
Two Tribesmen, Three Allegiances
1 That societies are split by tribalism is a commonplace, but last weekend’s World Cup quarterfinal game between England and France showed tribalism in a special light. Two aspects of that December 10 game may have significance even for those who
What I Learned from a Book Club About My Own Novel
When speaking to groups about Caroline, my novel that I promote elsewhere on this website, I acknowledge that once a book is out, it’s no longer the exclusive province of the author. As I found during a recent Zoom meeting with a Florida book club,
MRI
Originally posted June 22, 2017. Last week I had an MRI, not my first. Familiarity takes some of the edge off my anxiety about it, but it still runs like a current through the weeks and days. All too soon, I’m in a dressing room at the MRI
What Do You See in a Blue Suit?
1 At a recent roundtable meeting for disability rights leaders, Kamala Harris described herself as follows: “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.” Harris was put in a no-win
Testy: A Story
I don’t realize how out of it I am after an operation until looking back a month later. There I was, the morning after the surgery. “Morning after” seems apt because it’s like a hangover, except without the really bad headache but with no prospect of
A Mockingbird’s Song and Abraham’s Silence
Revised August 1, 2022 1 Our first mockingbird in several years arrived this spring. I want to say I missed him, which I did, but of course, the one we now have isn’t the same one from before. Still, like his predecessor, his call is a
Justin, My Own Farewell
1 When I picked up the ringing phone, I heard a recording of a man howling in agony. How despicable of a robo-caller to disseminate such a heart-rending sound. I hung up. Half an hour later, the phone rang again. It was my brother, crying, but now
Regret
The subject of regret has been on my mind after a month of disturbed insomniac nights as I began my recovery from a broken femur (thigh bone) and surgery. My focus is now on physical therapy and the slow return to normal. However, those early, rather
Shall I compare thee to a sweltry day? Poem and Commentary
Shall I compare thee to a sweltry day? By Johann Sebastian Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a sweltry day? Thou art more dismal and less temperate. Long ago flow’red the darling buds of May That now droop and wilt, green fuses past
The Reptile in the Capitol
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,"
Libby Speaks 1: Introduction and “The Homeless Problem” (a story)
Introduction: Inspiration for the five Libby speaks stories In 1948, Giovanni Guareschi published his first volume in a series of charming Don Camillo stories. The series has three recurring characters. Don Camillo is the priest of the town’s
Libby Speaks 2: Sex Matters (a story)
Council Member Gavin Kane, Democrat, was incensed. Max Morano and his fellow Republicans had vowed to fight a proposed law to make sexual harassment a firing offense. Gavin signed into his Twitter account. “Once again, Max Morano stands in the way
Libby Speaks 3: Squeaky Shoes (a story)
Tina Millette told her boss, Council Member Gavin Kane, that a constituent was making life difficult in the public area of their district office. “I can hear the shouting in here with the door closed,” Gavin said. “What does he think this is?
Libby Speaks 4: Plastic Bags (a story)
Republican City Council Member Max Morano was taking a Diet Coke break with Irma Jansen, his chief of staff. “I can’t believe the city’s Democrats passed the plastic bag ban. Totally counterproductive. The plastic bags I take home with me from the
Libby Speaks 5: Healthcare (a story)
Tina Millette waltzed into Democratic Council Member Gavin Kane’s office, as usual, without knocking. “There’s an item in the Gazette about Max Morano’s mother having gone through a successful course of treatment for colon cancer at the Baltic Creek
Disability Appropriation
To accuse a work or its author of cultural appropriation can be to censor a possibly sincere attempt to celebrate fellow human beings. The same can apply to claims of disability appropriation. In my view, the focus should be on countering it, not
Vladimir Putin and Self-Hatred
So many human qualities can be inversions of what they seem. Hatred of someone else can be hatred of oneself. To punish another can be to engage in self-punishment. The subject of inversion came up the other evening during the rebroadcast of Dick
Me Me Me
In my posts to this website, as well as in my fiction, I’m conscious of writing from the point of view of an individual. The argument goes that when we depict personal experience, we speak for many others, even the whole of human experience. But do
Looking Back on a Mediation Program from the COVID Era
For the past twenty-two months, my old office, the New York State Attorney General’s complaint mediation program, has been empty but for two people: a file clerk and a staff member who processes the day’s mail. COVID-19 is the explanation, of course.
A Song, A Companion
I recently came across Jackie Trent’s obscure recording, “When Summertime is Over.” It took me back to the summer of 1965, after I’d forced the authorities and my parents to free me from boarding school, where I’d been unhappy and homesick. I’d twice
The English Garden Rose
The many-petaled spiral of the English garden rose against the green of a mown lawn and the blue of a nearly cloudless sky brings feelings of wellbeing to our hearts and minds. It sparks a spring day with red, yellow or orange. It is lovely and