[Longform, 1600 words and counting. Brutal, true, up-lifting, possibly unfair, almost certainly transparent under hindsight. (We’ll see!) There’s a lot of personal history here. This is one I do feel good about and recommend. – JHF]
healing
My brother Bill has cancer in both lungs. My siblings and I are at least mildly surprised he’s lasted this long, given his decades-long history of methamphetamine addiction and smoking cigarettes to boot. But I know little about him, really. My natural sympathies are tempered by the fact that I’ve been far too close to [...]
What miracle is this? Too new, too fresh… It probably helped to get as sick as I just did, coughing up bloody gunk and unable to sleep, imagining the worst, a cascade of fear of everything from leaving the wreckage of a life for her to clean up to ever-diminished circumstances if I lived. Sometimes [...]
Even more editing, especially at the end. – JHF Other than the truck, I don’t remember many details of the murder up in Questa sometime after we arrived in ’99. Not the sort of thing to savor, obviously. It happened just outside a bar. The perpetrator used his wheels to crush the victim, back and [...]
A lot of things are coming into clearer focus these days. What’s important, you might say. A healthy dose of universal truth, accepting that I’m part of something greater than myself and finally relaxing a little bit. I certainly didn’t get this far on my own power, did I? We always think we do, as [...]