We have to euthanize our cat, Biko, today. (We named him for Steven Biko, the anti-Apartheid activist who is also in the Peter Gabriel song, Biko. It’s pronounced Bee-Ko.) Today would have been my mom’s birthday. So: a heavy day, for me. When Ella woke up this morning and grouched at me, I went into my closet [...]

Today I heard that an old friend killed himself on Sunday. I am in shock. I don’t know all the details. I know that he was going through a divorce. I know that this weekend he jumped off the roof of a hotel in San Francisco.

I’m probably too old to say this but there are times like today when I have such a primal, urgent need for my mother that I want to throw myself on the floor of the supermarket – right there in the Ben and Jerry’s aisle – and shout at the top of my lungs like [...]