I came across one of those pious-sounding tidbits that fascinates me lately: the kind of exhortation that sounds bad enough at first glance but gets worse the longer you re-read it. They came from a random X/Twitter account, but the source was cited so I read the whole thing. It’s about everybody’s favorite topic: modesty. This is the passage in full: “Listen to the voice of Saint Padre Pio, Stigmatist… Given special guidance from Heaven, Saint Padre Pio the... Read more
October Saturdays are soccer days. Adrienne is doing well at school and on her soccer team; she still wants me to respect her privacy and not tell many funny stories about her for the time being, because she’s growing up. I’m thankful for all the people who keep asking if she’s all right. She’s very happy. Five days a week she goes to school, and one day a week I have to drive her out to a field in the... Read more
My friend told me that the worst thing she ever did, was take the chest plate off a turtle. This happened a long time ago, when we were both teenagers in Columbus. She lived out in the country and I did not. She said she once found a box turtle sunning himself in the yard. She’d always wanted to know what the belly and chest of a turtle looked like underneath the shell. So she turned the unsuspecting creature... Read more
I went on another October hike. I wasn’t supposed to be hiking today. I have deadlines and there isn’t any money. I woke up at nearly noon and had plenty of writing to do, but the first thing I did was jump into my stained hiking clothes and make sure my muddy hiking shoes were still in the backseat of Serendipity. Then I was on the road, across the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge that I call the Brig o’ Dread, through... Read more
I didn’t think the news cycle could get more horrendous, but it has. Besides all the unimaginable suffering in Israel and Palestine, there’s been an anti-Palestinian hate crime here in America. It’s been reported that Joseph Czuba, a landlord in Plainville, Illinois, stabbed his tenant, Hanaan Shahin, and then murdered her six-year-old son, Wadea Al Fayoume. Shahin had emigrated from the West Bank to escape the violence twelve years ago. Al Fayoume had not been afraid of his... Read more
On Sunday I went to Mass, but I didn’t get out of my car. Adrienne had brought home another head cold from school, and I caught it a few days after she was done with it. The head cold meant I had a good excuse to stay home with no Catholic guilt, but I didn’t want to. I also didn’t want to go inside, and make people sick, and have a panic attack to boot. I have had panic attacks... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves... Read more
The sun came out on my 39th birthday, after several days of October gloom. I was born at Saint Anne’s Hospital, which is technically in Westerville but might as well be Columbus, on October eleventh, 1984. My mother and father were very studious at their Lamaze classes, to no avail. I stubbornly refused to come out. All four of my younger siblings were scheduled Caesarian births, but mine was the first, a last ditch Caesarian after 24 hours of labor.... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the... Read more
When I am at pain, I seek beautiful things. Maybe this is my neurodivergence, but I think everyone does it to some extent. When I feel bad, I look for something beautiful to concentrate on. When I am in pain in the hospital or at the doctor’s office, I dissociate by looking at a flower in the wallpaper border or the privacy curtain if there is one, or a tree in the generic art they sometimes have on the... Read more
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