I just got back from England where I celebrated my Dad’s 70th birthday and faced the reality of aging parents.
My normally laid-back father was deeply stressed out about his party. Ok, it was for 90 people and I too would be uptight, but on the morning of the event he collected me from the airport [...]
Archive for the ‘Death’ category
Stella and the aging parents
Music, Weightlessness, and the Waking Dream
I used to wake every morning to soundtrack of Gattaca on my cd-player/alarm clock. The incessant call in the music evoked something both melancholy and haunting. The dark tones of the string instruments resonated with something deep inside me, striking some blend of longing and worry, as if I weren’t quite certain where or who [...]
Late Summer
The sun is high and bright. Back in Saskatchewan, the fields are a burning gold, the skies unending in their pale blue, and the heat constant. At night, lightning storms fill the entire sky, or more often the heavens clear to a rich darkness with its ten thousand thousand stars. It’s strange how much I [...]
Crack House Diary: Ten Cents and the birth of Cain
I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this story about my dogs. If I complete the story it will span two or three Whatsit entries, and it will end with our taking what should have been two members of our family to an animal shelter, where they were left behind and never seen [...]
A day goes by
It’s been just about ten years since I said the only real prayer I’ve ever said: “Please make him better or take him soon.” I didn’t want my father to go through a long, emaciating fight against cancer.
I took a deep breath and rode the elevator up to the cancer floor at U Penn [...]
The discreet charm of the 40th birthday
A few weeks from now I will turn 40. It’s made me a little reflective lately. I’ve been thinking about birthdays and the important part they play in organizing the life process. Up until now birthdays have organized my life according to a series of very momentous rights of passage. They [...]
This I believe (pessimist edition)
I believe that this is just the beginning.
I believe that the economy will get worse and worse, as housing prices keep falling and unemployment keeps rising and corporations keep failing. I believe that, at some point, not only will it be difficult to find a job, it will be impossible—in fact, eventually the very idea [...]
