Category Archive

[This piece was written some time ago. Publication was held until after the trial concluded.] I began this week with a fear of the unknown. I am going to trial for the first time in my career. The weird part is that it is for the legacy of a career I’d already left behind. Nearly three years ago, I made …

Long ago, I dated a woman with an unusual family custom. She and her family were privately nudists at home – parents and multiple siblings hung out together in the buff. While I don’t quite come from Puritan stock, it was a very foreign experience to hear her accounts of her upbringing (I never witnessed it, and can’t say if …

In junior high school, we were asked to investigate the topic of our choice and to provide both a written and an oral report for English class. At the time I was dating a cute 7th grade classmate whose parents were divorced, so I ambitiously selected the topic, “Children of Divorce.” I recall checking a not very good book from …

It’s been a year since I lost my father. I recall his last day with clarity. I arrived at the hospice early, shortly after my mother. Dad was lucid, in good spirits, happy to see me. We discussed the middle of the night solo foray to the bathroom that had left his oxygen tubing detached from him after catching on …

It arrived when I was most expecting it but least prepared to handle it: the parental obsolescence of adolescence. It’s inaccurate to say the kids don’t need me, because they do. They simply don’t have time for me outside of those very specific moments when they need only me. I’ve become a hex wrench – critically useful for a very …

He stood out to me before we became friends. His all white hair and a matching goatee contrasted well with his dark complexion – you could spot him easily in a crowded room. He was quick to laugh, knew everyone, and introduced himself to newcomers. He was the ultimate volunteer dad when our oldest was in elementary school, leading songs …

I was having a conversation with dear friends over game night last week, and one asked if I would advise my kids to pursue careers in medicine. I ended up coming up with a laundry list of all the reasons that practicing medicine is difficult right now, but I acknowledged that although it has diminished with the weirdly adversarial position …

Great literature creates a space for empathy for the human condition, working its magic in unexpected ways. Last night I found myself in a particular netherworld you might relate to: I’ve finished a great book, I don’t like the book assigned from my book club, I don’t have a show I particularly need to watch, and I want something nourishing …

Our recent summer travel highlighted a new and reasonable expectation from my kids: a daily dose of seclusion. The kids are 14 and 16, respectively, and it’s not surprising that they want time to themselves. These are age-appropriate needs. What caught me off guard is how blind I was to those needs in spite of sharing them. Since 2017, we …

As a DIY independent traveler, I assume full responsibility for our vacations: optimizing credit card points to purchase airfare, reserving Airbnb accommodations, verifying that sites of interest are open on the dates we schedule visits, managing domestic travel via plane, Metro, bus and Ferry. I also create the itinerary.  Over the years I’ve come to understand the characteristics that make …