The world has done

The world has done that already – possessed the Congo and pillaged her and dominated her and robbed her of agency and occupation. Love is something else, something rising and contagious and surprising. It isn’t aware of itself. It isn’t keeping track. It isn’t something you sign for. It’s endless and generous and enveloping. It’s … Read more

She stood looking carefully

She stood looking carefully at the labeled portraits Ursala had put up: Little Crow, Chief of the Santees, Geronimo, last of the Apaches, and Ursala’s favorite, Big Foot, dying in the snow at Wounded Knee. Isn’t that where the massacre was? asked Ellen. Yes. I’m going to go there when I’m grown up. To Wounded … Read more

When you go to

When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed; not you. . . . Then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and you know it can happen to you. After being severely wounded two weeks before my nineteenth birthday … Read more

We have turned doctors

We have turned doctors into gods and worship their deity by offering up our bodies and our souls – not to mention our worldly goods. And yet paradoxically, they are the most vulnerable of human beings. Their suicide rate is eight times the national average. Their percentage of drug addiction is one hundred times higher … Read more