Category: Columns
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A New Normal
In a recent ad by Joe Kennedy, who’s running for one of the U.S. Senate seats in Massachusetts, he talks about how now there’s “talk to go back to normal. Our normal was broken.” As far as political ads go, it’s effective. I began to think: exactly what was normal, and what the heck is…
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All We Are Saying
The world we live in has been rocked by crisis after crisis. First the Coronavirus slipped in amongst us, taking, at first, the most vulnerable populations from our nursing homes, Veterans’ Homes, Senior Living Facilities and then attacking the people who have the least access to medical care because they are financially stressed, Black and…
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Resiliency: A Moment In An Addict’s Time
If I made funny noises and ran around the room, I wouldn’t have to tell the therapist anything. I know my mother told him I wet the bed all the time. But no one else knows about the boy who said he would play doctor and stuck the stick up my rectum. And no one…
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There are a lot of lessons in this pandemic – will we learn them?
COVID-19 has taken over all of our lives. It has separated us from family and friends, closed schools, playgrounds, and churches; it’s taken from us all that we take for granted. Simple things like going for walks seem risky, and many of our cities look like ghost towns. It’s so quiet you can hear the…
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Sheltering in Place
These are weird times. The doctors postponed Mary Esther’s spine surgery until June 10 because of the situation. Her lungs are challenged normally, so it’s important that she not get exposed to the coronavirus. This strange thing has put all our lives on hold. My heart goes out to people who are homeless and have…
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Uncertainties and Impermanence
My wonderful wife, Mary Esther, and I just returned from a visit with the surgeon who will be operating on her back. It’s much more involved than we thought it would be, and we are meditating every day just to help us cope. We’re trying to keep it in the day, but we can’t help…
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Is Boston truly ready for Coronavirus?
Just the other day I was at one of the busiest malls in the Boston area, it was a nice warm pre-spring day, the kind of day you look forward to after a long New England winter. Instead of being packed to the gills like it would usually be on a day like this, the…
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Recipe For A Terrorist
Deprivation. One of the main ingredients. Frustration. Another important ingredient. Intelligence. Ahh, yes. Not all the ingredients needed for creating a terrorist have negative connotations. Once upon a time I was a little boy growing up in the city of North Arlington, New Jersey. I wore glasses in the first grade. I was the only…
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Midnight Only Comes Once
It’s official. As of Monday morning, January 6, 2020 the Impeachment of President Trump is on the second page of the Boston Globe. Clearly our President took a lesson from a previous Republican president. When polls threaten to decline, start a war. President Trump just assassinated General Qasem Soleimani, the top General of Iran. Of…