Straightening Out My Soul

I see signs of progress. The pandemic is winding down. More people have been vaccinated. Friends are planning to visit. Families separated by the virus for the past year are reuniting. It isn’t perfect, and it surely isn’t total. Look at Michigan! But I think we’re coming back.

Some members of our communities have been heroic during the past year: those who made deliveries, grocery store clerks, nurses and orderlies, gas station night managers, cops who care and firefighters who risk their lives. These folk may understandably be worn out by what was asked of them over the past year. They need our thanks, and they need a break….

Dreading the Miracle

I never expected to grow old.

In 1991 I was diagnosed HIV-positive. That diagnosis was spelled “AIDS” which at that time was also spelled “dead.” I was in my early 40s, fighting the odds, hoping for more birthdays, wondering if I might make it as far as 50.

Then a miracle happened. Anti-retroviral drugs arrived about five years after my diagnosis and AIDS became, in the U.S., mostly a treatable disease. No cure, but stay-alive treatments if you can make them work. About fifteen years later I fought off a tough case of cancer, again stretching my life farther than I’d imagined….

Carpool Karaoke

For those who’ve experienced a deep betrayal, the idea that we’ll readily trust again is just that: an idea. But it isn’t real. The wound is too wide. It may heal over decades, but never over days.

I want not to rent space in my head to the previous president but I need to start with him because his was a siege of betrayal. He betrayed the ideals of the American constitution and the honor of the Office of President. He betrayed our nation’s global reputation and every standard of common decency. In calling others to violence and the sacrilege of January’s assault, he embodied what Stephen King once prophesied: “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” He lied and, innocent or not, they rioted….more on Medium