As the date of this shoulder surgery approached, I was looking forward to the reversal of our roles. For once, I would get to do for her what she always does for me. I saw myself administering pain meds, fetching ice, making food, and fluffing pillows. I hated that I cowered in the kitchen, leaving her to take care of that deer. I wished I had told her to, “Rest, honey, I’ll handle it.” But I didn’t. I was afraid to watch that deer suffer and die.
Month: May 2026
Writing as Practice: What Writers Really Do
The difficulty of being a writer is that you have nothing to show for it. No painting on the living room wall, no ceramic mug in the pantry, no quilt on the bed, no live performance with your name on the program at the concert hall.
What Do You Do?
And even when I got a real-world job with that real-world paycheck, I still got the squirms when I was asked the “What do you do?” question, because that thing that I did, which resulted in that paycheck, never felt like a living. It felt like working. The living was what came after the working.
Cognitive Sovereignty, but Make It Dog Content
My delight over Isabel’s success is, in a way, proof that this experiment in cognitive sovereignty is doing something: instead of being flooded with dread about the state of the world, I’m unexpectedly practicing how to feel glad for someone else’s hard‑won joy. That feels like a small but meaningful victory in the age of the algorithm.
Inspiration Location 