Month: October 2019

There have to be safer ways to cope with a lay-off Mack sat on the sand thirty yards away from the rest of the members on their private beach. They all seemed content to lounge under carnival striped umbrellas, their warm, dry toes just out of reach of the five-foot waves rolling off Lake Michigan. … Continue reading Beach Start

a short sketch about family imprinting As I waited for the light to change, a pickup pulled up next to me. A five-year old boy popped up over the passenger side window sill. He had surprised me and he knew it. I grinned back just before he ducked down and I was left to watch … Continue reading Am I Watched?

When dementia can help...sort of My next-door neighbor, Ethel, lives with her elderly sister. Come to think of it, Ethel’s not so young herself. “Mandy,” she said over the phone. “Could you come over to stay with Cheryl for an hour…two at the most? I need to get an oil change and run some errands. … Continue reading Twitter Tourettes

Recently I heard that the Bushmen of the Kalahari spend a mere fifteen hours a week gathering food. The rest of the time they tell stories and interact. That sounds like fun—a kind of early retirement for the whole tribe. More to the point, I wondered how a people could spend so much time telling … Continue reading Why We Need Stories

A bachelor uncle reaches out of the past “James…” “What Mom? Something bad?” “My brother Duane died.” I could hear her breathing over the phone. Actually, you could most always hear her breathing…her COPD. But this time it was more rapid than usual. She was not very close to her brother. But still at their … Continue reading Uncle Duane…cut to black