Still Life by Aaron Schultz I want a switch, a giant circuit breaker Grab handle with both hands, throw it up Break the circuit, break the seizure Stop the pain, stop the shock Restart the heart, keep my daughter from this brutal callousness called normal This is not the world I’ve worked to create This is not the world I’ve…
Category: personal essays
Nightmares and Preexisting Conditions
Breakdown Fifteen years ago, I had a nervous breakdown. Rooted in depression and anxiety, breakdowns shift one’s perspective from bad dream to nightmare and wasn’t my first, or my last. I was thirty feet up a ladder working on a house and sobbing so hard, I could barely climb down.
The Injustice of American Healthcare
Objects Are More Important Than People “Of all the form of inequity, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane,” Martin Luther King said 50 years ago. Healthcare is not a privilege. It is a right. Speak up. Don’t be a bystander. Despite spending the most per-capita on healthcare, the USA shows the lowest life expectancy and highest infant…
Repeal of the ACA Obamacare
Many people are sharing their stories of how the repeal of the ACA (Affordable Care Act, otherwise know as “Obamacare”) would impact them through the denial of services because of pre-existing conditions. Here’s my story.
Snowboarding Dawn Patrol
Trail Report. Dawn Patrol. Teton Pass. Wyoming. The ritual starts the night before by packing your pack, which if you’ve had a good winter is packed already and just needs replenishment. Water. Powerbar. Apple. Chocolate. Layers. Headlamp. First aid kit. Lighter. Multi-tool. Eyewear. Avalanche kit: probe, shovel, beacon, inclinometer. Optional small thermos for coffee on the summit. Keep pack light,…
Conspiracy Against American Teachers
50% of new teachers leave the field after five years. Think about it. Just when someone is getting the hang of this difficult job, they leave for a different field. All that training, experience, and education gone, deprived from our children. The way teachers are treated in this country makes me sick. One must wonder if budgets and salaries are…
Do What You Love: You Are Saying it Wrong
The Love Affect “Do what you love.” We’ve been saying it backwards. This confusion isn’t our fault because we give and receive this platitude casually, thinking it makes us sound enlightened. On the surface, this bumper sticker sounds satisfying and achievable, like building then sitting by a fire. Looking deeper, however, “do what you love” is more like your last,…
Old Dog Shaky Legs
(I wrote the following last December, 2015. The photo was taken during Winter’s last camping trip, the weekend before she died. Last Sunday, Jen and I picked up Winter’s ashes, a paw print, and a lock of her fur.) Winter Dog, sweet Winter Dog. Her hind end has been shaking more and more. Lately, when we go for walks in…
Response to Pulse Shootings
Last night I had a dream. In it, I was searching a hotel, trying to find someone. A woman stopped me in the lobby, saying, “50 people were just murdered, shot to death in Florida. It’s a new record.” Sitting down on a nearby bench, I put my head in my hands and started crying, soul sadness pushing out from…