a radio was on.

You remember how my office used to be, don't you? Someone in the chair across from me, possibly weeping, someone right outside the office, resting her weight on one foot and then the other, and then there was likely someone else doing repeated drive-bys, walking the inner circle of hallway and looking through the glass wall, hoping I would free up.  Emails were flying into my inbox and I was late for a call.  And I loved it. I loved problem solving, and the listening, and it wasn't necessarily a healthy way to live, but I was surrounded by people all day long.  I would talk on the phone for the hour ride home, and walk in to a house full of kids, people clamoring for attention here, too.  The busyness was an opiate, it was how I knew I was in the world.  I didn't save lives but I felt alive.  Needed. Sometimes it's so quiet around here, you could drop that pin. I hear from a couple people every single day--but the number of people seeking me out particularl...

You remember how my office used to be, don't you? Someone in the chair across from me, possibly weeping, someone right outside the office, resting her weight on one foot and then the other, and then there was likely someone else doing repeated drive-bys, walking the inner circle of hallway and looking through the glass wall, hoping I would free up.  Emails were flying into my inbox and I was late for a call.  And I loved it. I loved problem solving, and the listening, and it wasn't necessarily a healthy way to live, but I was surrounded by people all day long.  I would talk on the phone for the hour ride home, and walk in to a house full of kids, people clamoring for attention here, too.  The busyness was an opiate, it was how I knew I was in the world.  I didn't save lives but I felt alive.  Needed. Sometimes it's so quiet around here, you could drop that pin. I hear from a couple people every single day--but the number of people seeking me out particula...

I wrote this on the evening of the senate judiciary hearing: I'm listening to the boys downstairs, watching a movie with Kim and Zoe, relaxing after a day of first grade.  Which you know was arduous in its own way, despite our tendency to think of our children's lives as simpler, or easier than the lives we live.  Asher and a neighbor girl, who is also a gorgeous, healthy six year old, are in the same classroom. Asher brought home a book on dogs from the library today--he told me the neighbor girl showed him where the pets section was in the stacks.  Just that--that sweet interaction, layered with no extra meaning--she knew more about the layout of the library than him and she showed him. Today, with the radio and the television tuned to the Supreme Court hearings, the relative innocence of six year olds could break your heart.  For me, the testimony about the laughter resonated deepest, deeper even than the testimony about the second door. "Indelible in the hippocam...

I wrote this on the evening of the senate judiciary hearing: I'm listening to the boys downstairs, watching a movie with Kim and Zoe, relaxing after a day of first grade.  Which you know was arduous in its own way, despite our tendency to think of our children's lives as simpler, or easier than the lives we live.  Asher and a neighbor girl, who is also a gorgeous, healthy six year old, are in the same classroom. Asher brought home a book on dogs from the library today--he told me the neighbor girl showed him where the pets section was in the stacks.  Just that--that sweet interaction, layered with no extra meaning--she knew more about the layout of the library than him and she showed him. Today, with the radio and the television tuned to the Supreme Court hearings, the relative innocence of six year olds could break your heart.  For me, the testimony about the laughter resonated deepest, deeper even than the testimony about the second door. "Indelible in the hip...

This morning, I opened the cupboard door to get a coffee mug to make Kyle some coffee and a small jar of honey came hurtling out as if it had been pitched, hard, by a tiny elf (I couldn't help thinking of those elves that helped the shoemaker and his wife at night, wondering if they had a miscreant cousin whose job is to try and create small kitchen accidents.  But I digress.).  The jar just missed my head--I am almost sure it was going so fast I felt a small gust of wind.  It shattered on the floor, leaving me in bare feet, surrounded by honey and broken glass. So this jar of honey was a gift from a dear friend on the evening of Rosh Hashanah; she gave it to me with a bag of apples and together we dipped apple slices into the honey and wished each other a sweet new year. What does it mean that my symbol of a sweet new year, a year in which I hope to be inscribed in the book of life, flew out of my cupboard, pitched for my head and smashed to pieces?  At first I thou...

This morning, I opened the cupboard door to get a coffee mug to make Kyle some coffee and a small jar of honey came hurtling out as if it had been pitched, hard, by a tiny elf (I couldn't help thinking of those elves that helped the shoemaker and his wife at night, wondering if they had a miscreant cousin whose job is to try and create small kitchen accidents.  But I digress.).  The jar just missed my head--I am almost sure it was going so fast I felt a small gust of wind.  It shattered on the floor, leaving me in bare feet, surrounded by honey and broken glass. So this jar of honey was a gift from a dear friend on the evening of Rosh Hashanah; she gave it to me with a bag of apples and together we dipped apple slices into the honey and wished each other a sweet new year. What does it mean that my symbol of a sweet new year, a year in which I hope to be inscribed in the book of life, flew out of my cupboard, pitched for my head and smashed to pieces?  At first I th...

Let me not bury the lede. My oncologist emailed me today in advance of next week's appointment to tell me that he received the results of the genetic testing and the test identified the EGFR T790M mutation, which means I can start a new drug on Monday that will likely give me another year, or more, of life.  Bury the lede.  That is when a story fails to emphasize the most important part of the story or account.  In journalism, the lede refers to the introductory section of the news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story. The spelling lede is an alteration of lead, which makes sense, because shouldn't the main information in a story be found in the first, or lead paragraph.  Some newspaper folks spell it lede, which distinguishes it from lead, which also happens to refer to a thin strip of metal separating lines of type on a Linotype machine which really hasn't been used since the 1970s.  Lede is insider spelling, or romantic spelling....