About a year ago, my father wrote me an email. “You should get some therapy,” he said. “You really need it.” (He said some other stuff too, but we won’t get into that again.)
Of course, I dismissed this as a fake entreaty, bitter retaliation for a Whatsit post I wrote about growing up a child [...]
Archive for the ‘Family’ category
Fucked up… but in a good way?
How to have heart surgery
My dad just had open-heart surgery to replace a poorly functioning valve. He never had any kind of cardiac “event,” just discovered the problem during checkups and follow-up visits to the doctor. This kind of surgery — valve replacement — is deemed “routine,” even though they crack your chest open.
There has been nothing routine about [...]
Idle thoughts on a working life
Throw a party, break a few wine glasses, I can replace them with handblown stems even more beautiful. What about your brother-in-law sleeping on that old camp cot? Even if he does stay too long, isn’t it time to buy a new sofa bed? Imagine those tulips arrayed in a perfectly fluted vase or a [...]
The Welcome Home Band
It is 1971. I am nearly four years old. My mother has driven my brother and me to an airplane hangar in Alameda, California, where my father is scheduled to fly his Navy jet in from somewhere or another.
Dad has been gone for six months, a big chunk of my young life. I remember what [...]
A valentine to my editor across the pond
I have always fantasized that I was a Greta Garbo style writer, longing to be left alone in a room of my own. Writing is a solitary affair, in a garret, with a cough and a half bottle of whiskey, observing human foibles from afar. In daydreams I have cast myself in every stereotype, reveling [...]
Defending Rudolph
When I was four, we lived in an apartment complex that divided a gingerbread house neighborhood and a ramshackle, riverbank neighborhood – one with neat little blocks of brick and garden, the other with litter strewn yards, debris from basements flooded every spring. Our buildings stood in between, a corridor of indecision for renters on [...]
Tidy TV
I like order, progress, and productivity. I feel good when I’ve ironed and tidied and organized. I have numerous lists and love crossing things off. It would be nice to be laid back and go with the flow, but my flow won’t go until it’s tidy.
And cable TV knows I’m out there. [...]
Four legs good, two legs glad
I arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon, ready to spend a week working with a client and visiting with friends. I love coming here, as the people I stay with have a lovely home in the Castro, an open-door policy, and a fun and welcoming collective of family and friends. There’s always [...]
