Why do I have such a visceral aversion for dystopian fantasy and apocalyptic fiction? After a friend convinced me to read Ling Ma’s Severance (2018), a debut novel that has lately garnered a lot of renewed attention, the reasons for my resistance
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To Complain or Not to Complain: Ten Considerations
When do we choose to let bygones be bygones? How do we decide when to let go and when to pursue? I’m unhappy with one of the lawyers who handled my father’s estate. In deciding how to proceed, I was aided by conversations with several friends and
Fairness in Love and Death
On April 12, the Washington Post published a questionnaire designed to show readers if they hold ableist assumptions. However, the questions reveal their authors’ own prejudices about matters of love and death. Throughout, for reasons explained in
Sunlight at Amherst?
I finally have the basic answer to the question I posed to my alma mater, Amherst College, nearly two years ago. Subscribers to this website may recall that, after being excluded from a Zoom presentation in 2021 due to the College’s reliance on an
Big Eyes
I resist the notion of “ableism” because it suggests that all nondisabled people (whoever they may be) discriminate against disabled people, which isn’t true. However, a visually impaired friend of mine, his sighted wife and sighted six-year-old
A Lexicon of Character Formation
Mimicry is one of the many skills I don’t possess. Even so, the people I’ve known over the course of my life have made their mark on me, and I hear it in the expressions I’ve co-opted from them. I’ll always recall from my childhood with affection
Disability Discomfiture
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
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