A life in words

  • Painkillers for the mind

    Once upon a time as a 14 year-old I became very depressed. I was told I had depression, a serious illness that I would have to treat by taking antidepressant medications for the rest of my life. I started taking Paxil (a drug since linked to increased suicidality in young people) and it seemed to…

  • Mark I Bread Prototype

    My first attempt in recent memory at cooking one type of what may be the world’s oldest food: bread! Lessons learned: Cooking bread with olive oil maybe works. At first the bread tasted strange, but by the next day it tasted quite good. I think next time I’ll try using butter or vegetable oil to see…

  • There is no fear in love

    You might say I’m something of a late bloomer. At least, that’s how I feel sometimes. As a teen and through much of my twenties I was so hunkered down just trying to survive that I never really learned how to thrive. Still trying to figure that part out. In any sort of love story…

There is nothing I dread so much, as a division of the Republic into two great Parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This in my humble apprehension is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.John Adams, Letter to Jonathan Jackson, 2 Oct 1780