“Big Salad” Scares and Glowing Rectangles: Why Our Convenient World Is Making Us Anxious
The recent scare from “Big Salad” had, or still has, depending on when you read this piece, the world clutching its pearls. If the scare is still current, exhale. We will make it through this. It is going to be all right. Perhaps this is less a warning…
The Financial Toll of Cancer: What Nobody Tells You About Medical Debt, Fear, and Serious Illness
There is a part of the cancer journey that people do not talk about very much. It does not even have to be cancer. Any serious health crisis will do. There are the bills. In the beginning, there is fear and chaos. You wonder what will happen. You wonder…
Defeating the Dairy Demon: A Grocery Trip Lesson in Moderation
This afternoon, during a trip to the local grocery store, I discovered that sometimes your list may fail. Guys, it is okay to go off script from time to time. I pulled into the parking lot, and what did I see? Eight spaces near the door, open and…
Living in the Shadow of Cancer: An Honest Look at Survival and Loss
“This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks…” Wait. Are we sure this is how all great pieces of writing are supposed to begin? Over the past few months, I have tried my hand at prose. Well, writing. Let’s not get carried away and…
Mares Eat Oats
“Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?” Hi. My name is Wayne. I am sixty-four years old. And in this moment, I realized the kid is a baby goat. Not a child. Not some strange little ankle biter…
I Took a Pandemic DNA Test. It Exposed a 57-Year-Old Family Lie
The pandemic was a political time bomb, an emotional nightmare, and a body count all at once. Those of us in healthcare were standing on the front line of something we did not fully understand yet. It was loud. It was severe. It came with arguments,…
Trying to Find Their Way Home
Pull up a chair. This one is being written by your old uncle, the one you rarely speak to, and that may be too bad because you might have missed something. He is a little strange, sure. Around here, we call him Disco Grandpa. He has been known to chair…
Balaam’s Donkey and the Road We Wanted
Sometimes the problem is not that the traditional lesson is wrong. The problem is that we have become too familiar with it. We hear “Balaam’s donkey,” and our minds go straight to the usual picture: stubborn animal, angry prophet, angel with a sword, and…
The Package Is Not Always The Problem
Somewhere along the way, food got loud. One crowd says everything in a package is poison. Another crowd says it does not matter as long as the label has the right numbers. Then somebody else walks in wearing a lab coat made out of opinions and starts…
Finding Your Way Home
Give me a partially washed-out dirt road with gravel on the side. Not a perfect road. Not a smooth road, or one of those polished streets with painted lines and lights telling everybody exactly when to stop and go. Give me the old dirt road. The one with…