Fair compensation

So much of my days are consumed with being a secretary for Tom: disability, health and travel insurance claims, work and personal emails, returning phone calls, writing updates for family and friends, reading him comments on Facebook posts. I don’t mind. It’s easy work and the compensation is very high. Like today, I got to … read more Fair compensation

Making room

I woke up to this post from my friend Lee Howard that smacked me in the face: You’ve all been so amazing and compassionate with the massacres at Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Paris, and Belgium and places far afield.  … Guess what, it’s generally crickets chirping when it comes to a gay massacre in this country. … read more Making room

70 years of marriage

June 11, 1946, was a Tuesday. There were so many weddings that year, with all the GIs returning from the war – churches were booked solid. So Peg and Walt got married on a Tuesday morning at her local church, St. Joseph’s in Monroeville, Ohio. I wonder how many people took off from work to come … read more 70 years of marriage

The secret to happiness and health

For 75 years, Harvard has been tracking a group of ordinary American men and their families. From the thousands of pages of research that this study entailed, they found out the secret of happiness and health. You can hear all the details in a TED talk, below, or … … you can read my summary here. … read more The secret to happiness and health

One cold February day

She jerked. She stuttered. She stopped. “Anna Mae! What is it?” I cried, giving her a whack. She got going again, just a little ways, then stopped again. “Damn it!” A cold day in mid-February, I’m way up the side of the mountain. I came here excited about spending the afternoon to take photos of … read more One cold February day

The sabra: From Hanoi to Jerusalem

In October 1993, I had given up on men. I was still recovering from the break-up of a long and disastrously passionate relationship that spring. Summer brought a series of brief mismatches and a suicidal bout of depression. On top of Hua Shan in northern China that October, I stood exhausted from a grueling climb … read more The sabra: From Hanoi to Jerusalem