Confronting mental health challenges — As I perused the headlines today, I saw a story about Congressman John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Fetterman, he ran a bruising campaign in the last election cycle (and won) against a Trump-backed celebutant named Dr. Mehmet Oz. Fetterman was recovering from a…

The cataclysms in our lives are initially devastating, but they leave forensic evidence all around us to be analyzed. When the wounds heal and we’re ready to piece together what happened, we often find that there was as much to learn as there was to lose. Bonds that break apart…

Short fiction — When I saw her again she was getting high behind the fraternity houses. She was standing by a tree, walking around it in circles to avoid the spray of the rotating lawn sprinkler. Her timing was excellent. The entire action looked synchronized and reasonable. Her hair was in a glamorous…

The Gift Of Being Left Behind — Occasionally on Medium I see articles that are rants about the fury of people who have been discarded without compassion. …

Moving on when there is no closure — “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” …

The machine learning of creative pursuits could change mental healthcare — The news stories on Chat GPT have become so ubiquitous that they are hard to ignore. It is a broader topic than the narrowness of a program that could write some entrance essays for college applicants. …

Are we preserved

Choosing love to heal yourself — “Pain is the great teacher of mankind. Beneath its breath souls develop.” — Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach There are many things to learn when you’re in pain, but one that we don’t appreciate enough is that it teaches us how to heal. Recovery is a skill, not an accident. One of the most important steps in your restoration after being hurt is seeing…

A love story — A sweet one-year anniversary has arrived and I have drawn my conclusion on Medium. I love it. No, not because I’m top of anything in a category or because my earnings in a particular month can get me more than a carryout pizza. …