Household Words 3

The fact is, I only met Ellen’s parents a handful of times before I went off to San Diego. When people die, it’s natural to magnify their significance retroactively. I tried. I didn’t have a lot to go on. I observed nothing compelling about Ben and Amanda Walden. Maybe her mother’s eyes were too […]

Avoidance

Some of the most painful things that ever happened to me happened in childhood. One day after school, I sat in the car with my mom, facing the tree in our side yard, and crying and crying and telling her I was never going back to school. I had no friends. My only friend, in […]

Household Words: 2

In Middleton, I was in the school of social work. I had decided against medical school. My mother and brother were in a car accident years before, and they were just bodies, problems and numbers, in that E.R. I wanted people to be something more than bodies. I worked in a fabric store during those […]

Padding

I blame Buddha. I blame meditating. All this encouraging to open up has made me too… open. Vulnerable. It has made me anxious. Buddhism (in my readings) is about opening up. Not having any place to hide. Not pretending that what is happening is not happening. Actually, like, living your life as you go. It […]