"How long can I stay?" the 83-year-old asks. He's interviewing at the retirement community. That depends, he's told, in so many words. What’s more important is, What do you plan to do with yourself in your retirement? What can you do, and how will you fit in? How long until other residents complain, and he’s asked to "find … Continue reading Peaceful American Retirement: It’s Just Not That Into You
Category: Uncategorized
Pain: Some Notes On the Suffering of Suffering
Stepping from my bed the morning after a sedentary holiday Feste, my left foot ached with three successive footfalls. That was new for me. In an instant I imagined the pain's cause: my indulgences? Pain and any physical breakdown is inevitably, initially determined to be our own fault. American medical and religious culture at least … Continue reading Pain: Some Notes On the Suffering of Suffering
On Merit: One Approach to a “Good Death”
During my 7th grade at St. Eulalia Catholic school, a former student named Dave asked to come talk to us about his faith. Before that morning all I remember of him was how I wished that his sister, whom I never talked to, would be my girlfriend. The nun let him talk and play guitar … Continue reading On Merit: One Approach to a “Good Death”
One Strike Rule: A Suggestion
After listening to the Malcolm Gladwell Talking With Strangers audiobook: Human behavior is seldom transparent. People are often unlikely to behave in a way that mirrors their thinking or feeling, at that moment. Knowing this teaches that: We can afford a slower judgement towards those who can't explain their behavior so well, or with those … Continue reading One Strike Rule: A Suggestion
Asshole Theory: Are We All Damned?
Let me tell you of a time when I worked in one of Chicago's psych hospitals. This was before 9/11, before the Internet, when our POTUS (exhibit A) was a mere serial bankrupt. The 80's were well upon us, B-movie Ronnie and his full-frontal race-baiting was hard at work converting one in four black men … Continue reading Asshole Theory: Are We All Damned?
“Diversity Training” at Work
The video "vignettes" that my hospice team are viewing during our weekly Zoom meetings are said to address the topic of diversity. It's called an unconscious bias workshop, aka, Don't Assume Anything, but the timing spells out "white awareness to Blackness". They also threw in cis sensitivity to Queerness. The videos might be too long … Continue reading “Diversity Training” at Work
A Hospice Takeover: What’s Left When You Can’t Take It With You
What's left to do before we die? What must we leave undone? And what does that mean to our relationship with our stuff now, or to the stuff of our relationships? "Youth's a stuff [that] will not endure" wrote Shakespeare. Petruchio called his new bride Katherina ...my goods, my chattels; she is my house, my … Continue reading A Hospice Takeover: What’s Left When You Can’t Take It With You
The Free Market Capitalist Will See You Now: When Being Sick is Your Fault
"The sick can't get no respect", would have been a great moment for Rodney Dangerfield as a dying patient. He got respect. He got noticed. Comedy is saying what's not expected. A regular white guy like Rodney is automatically accorded respect. Capitalists know they're seeing a paying customer of some (permissible) weight when he comes … Continue reading The Free Market Capitalist Will See You Now: When Being Sick is Your Fault
Some Icky Sounds, and Silence
Here's a sound for you: gurgling. It's the frequently misnamed, so-called "death rattle". Does that involuntarily raise your hair follicles = make your skin crawl? Do you feel queasy on hearing or remembering the sound? If your scrotum involuntarily contracts (what's the female equivalent?), then you'd agree with me when I call it the creepiest … Continue reading Some Icky Sounds, and Silence
“Additional Duties as Assigned”
Nothing calls out a job opening like "Wanted: bright boy". Or it used to. But this other want ad is so modern, it's confusing. I'm being solicited again but can't for the life of me find any living activity among the job description phrasings. Is it a real case manager who is wanted, and a … Continue reading “Additional Duties as Assigned”
Hospice Nursing 1 Day at a Time 