Reading the late Paul Kalanithi’s spectacular memoir When Breath Becomes Air, a meditation about love, literature and science in the face of a terminal cancer diagnosis was a strange experience “The good news is that I’ve already outlived two Brontes, Keats and Stephen Crane,” Kalanithi wrote to a friend. “The bad news is that I haven’t written anything.” He was trying to be funny, using the kind of dark humor you get from people facing the unfaceable. But it also revealed Kalanithi’s tremendous ambition. He […]
Hmmmm.
The day this book (which I had pre-ordered) was released, it was in the 80s out. I was walking home from work wearing two tank tops and covered with a sweater, because even though I was walking 1.5 miles home (uphill) in 80+ degree weather, I have big boobs, and those of us with big boobs know that hot weather clothing and a large chest don’t mix well if one wants to make it through the day without leers and snide comments. Of course, that’s […]
The Quiet Heartbreak of Unreached Potential
In May 2012, Marina Keegan had a lot to look forward to. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale, had a play being produced at the New York International Fringe Festival, and lined up a job at The New Yorker. Just before she graduated, Marina wrote an essay titled “The Opposite of Loneliness.” Five days after receiving her diploma, Marina died in a car crash. She was 22 years old. “We’re so young. We’re so young.” Marina wrote in her final essay. “We’re twenty-two years […]
Listening to Autism
My husband and I have two sons who have both been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Our first diagnosis came about 12 years ago this summer, and I can tell you that like all the other autism parents I know, we immersed ourselves in information once we got the diagnosis. It can be overwhelming — there are books on diets, behavior modification, medications, personal stories, not to mention the vast realms of info (much of it crap) on the Internet. I cannot claim to have […]