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
Empathy
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
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
Courage Cells: A Story
Who would I be if I forgot the teacher who coaxed me past my math phobia, or the time my boss bailed me out and then reamed me out after I got a client into a disastrous investment, or the glowing loveliness of my wife Jane on our wedding day? Memory
A Hand, or Two, for Simone Biles
Without looking or touching, our right and left hands each knows where the other is. I hadn’t given that magical awareness any thought until I lost it after last month’s surgery to remove a bone spur from my shoulder. All of a sudden, my right hand
The Pain Game
How do you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten? The question is such a commonplace that when I complain about it to friends, they shrug and say, “They all ask that.” Why did this seemingly innocuous question annoy me? One hurdle I had to