Debby Ann has a pit bull, and I remembered that when she called me recently. It had belonged to her son, who is now deceased. He was murdered. She wants to meet me for lunch. Debby Ann is a pretty lady, at least she was the last time I saw her. We w…
With a leftover airline credit to spend, I recently decided to take a quick trip down to southern California and make one of my routine treks along Interstate 5 from San Diego to Orange County. I wanted to see how the area was dealing with the pandemic…
“I had been trained to be this way. No panic, just a calm journeyman’s approach to any affliction, like a mathematician working an equation. Years of preparation, acquiring a skill set, building up my vault, had readied me to stand in the lounge …
“A great man was lost today.” Those were my words to my wife at 1 a.m. several weeks ago on the phone, in reference to her father. While she was attending to our younger boys two hours away at our home, I was staying with my mother-in-law, doing the b…
This June has entered without the typical parades, rainbow flags, and jubilee. As the coronavirus lingers and the optimistic case for controlling the spread of COVID-19 casts a long, somber shadow over sections of the country, Pride seems like an after…
We sat down at a sun-drenched table in an outdoor restaurant enjoying the fresh breeze while sipping on our favorite drinks. He is a man with immense talent, a slight frame, and the art of the skill in dissecting the arborized vessels away from his mai…
For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to be a doctor. I used to destroy my younger sister’s dolls, giving them incurable, permanent-marker-based diseases, surgically treating various ailments with craft scissors. The other earliest…
How do racial issues affect patients’ physical and mental health, and how do we address them during regular visits? For those without the lived experience of the black community, how can we learn and educate ourselves? How are the current protest…
1. Change is slow. In fact, it’s much slower than I ever imagined. Part of the issue is that people don’t like change; another is that workplace culture often doesn’t support new ideas. Tackling this issue: Shift your focus. Get to kn…
I never expected to have a friend from Alabama. My upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, didn’t include anyone from the South, and this was a time in American history when the South was in turmoil. I recall black and white images on our family’s TV showing…
