Speak Tenderly

This week: the social worker was trying to talk to this woman with her eye swollen out of her head, the woman was thrusting her cell phone at this very young social worker demanding she talk to her dad. The hospital security guards talked about what to have for dinner. A college girl from Columbia […]

Virgin Birth

I don’t know what possessed me to watch the documentary “The Business of Being Born.” Several women give birth at home in this movie, and you see every detail of how it happens. I wondered– very theoretically since I currently am in no danger of giving birth– whether labor is more like getting a root […]

Mummified

For all we know, the soul of Perneb is wandering around, flustered, like a smoker without a Quik Trip at 3 am. Perneb believed, or at least some of his friends and family believed, that he needed a tomb with a false door to keep his soul nourished. Unfortunately, Mr. Edward S. Harkness gave Perneb’s […]

Size Matters

This week I drank a glass of merlot at happy hour. It was no big deal to anyone except me. For many years, I gave up alcohol for Lent. I felt like I needed to rethink my ritual, so I decided I would be easier on myself. I’m calling this a “soft Lent.” I would […]