Last August, while the rector of our church was on vacation, members of the parish were invited to preach. I was honored to be asked and gave the following sermon based on the story of Jacob’s wrestling match in Genesis 32. Jacob was a taker. His name meant “grabber,” or “usurper” and Jacob lived up to…
I’m uncomfortable. It’s a good-for-you kind of uncomfortable mind you, not the sitting-in-nettles kind of sensation. It’s the kind of unease I used to feel in college when the subject matter was getting away from me, and it wasn’t so easy to follow any more. Or when somebody close to me says, “We need to…
TODAY IS THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF MY WIFE’S STROKE. My memory is especially fresh since I’ve been re-writing and re-designing The Lifted Veil – my other blog which is more of a book now, written in narrative form. It’s still difficult to write and even read about those early days without feeling some of the…
I AM A BELLRINGER. Not little tinkly handbells, but big, bronze, high in the sky, swinging back and forth tower bells. I got involved in Change Ringing – which is what this particular pastime is called – when I was a freshman at the University of Chicago. At that time, U of C’s Mitchell Tower…
SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE SHE GAVE BIRTH to our first child, Mary Elizabeth shared with me the very serious concern that I would be a lousy parent and that she would have to do everything. While it would be easy to chalk this up to hormones, or pregnancy jitters, she had a point. I was adopted…
THIS MORNING, AS I WALKED OUTSIDE in the unseasonably gentle weather, my breath was taken away by the sky. Dark, purplish blue clouds stretched across the dome of heaven in the north, south and west. In the east however, the low ridges of the clouds glowed a deep orange through the bare branches of the…
THERE WAS A BAPTISM in church recently and I was struck by one of the lines in the service. “Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?” Like many of the questions in religious rites, the answer is proscribed and uttered easily: “I will, with God’s help” and then you move on…
I’M STILL A LITTLE STUCK on how to make the best of a bad situation and this cartoon by Roz Chast came to mind. In my post from a few weeks ago, I was thinking about the notion that as baby boomers, we were raised with the expectation that all it takes to achieve one’s…
IT WAS A BLUSTERY, RAINY DAY 19 years ago when Mary Elizabeth and I were married on September 18, 1993. We had planned an outdoor wedding, but luckily had a fallback plan in case of inclement weather. Mary Elizabeth grew up on the grounds of an 86-acre estate, which had been turned into Mill Neck…
I READ AN ARTICLE recently in The Atlantic and it really hit home. I wanted to add to the conversation, since we’ve been asking ourselves some of the same questions, and honestly struggling with the answers. Here’s the link: What My Son’s Disabilities Taught Me About ‘Having It All’ – The Atlantic?. And as we’ve…
THE CLOUDS SAILED ACROSS THE AZURE SKY as the late afternoon sun brushed them with a mellow midsummer gold. From the porch on the house in Rockport, I had a panoramic view of the Atlantic ocean and the July sky. We had left New York a couple of days before and had been visiting friends…
I’M AN IMPOSTOR. When people ask me how Mary Elizabeth is doing, I don’t really know who I am when I respond. Almost three years later I’m still trying to figure it out. Am I the cheerful and confident spouse, saying “Fine!” with a bright smile and a thumbs-up? Or am I the lugubrious,…
A COMA IS A FUNNY THING – well, not a funny-ha-ha kind of thing – but it wasn’t what I expected. After her stroke on December 5, 2009, Mary Elizabeth was in a coma for much of December and January – except when she wasn’t.
WHEN I WAS A BOY I spent every summer in the Adirondacks at a sleep-away camp on Lake George, not far from Ticoderoga, New York. It was a welcome respite from Manhattan in the summer, and was a much-needed break from life at home. One of the highlights of camp (and there were many) was…
IT’S BEEN A VERY LONG TIME since I’ve written a regular post to this blog, and I apologize for being away for so long. On this, the summer solstice and longest day of the year, I thought I would provide an update. Our lives continue on with school activities, movies and work. Mary Elizabeth continues…
Moved in Sundry Places 