health | The Smart Set

The End of My World

Thu, 27 May 2021 11:30:00 +0000

Before my eyes open, I give thanks for another day. Pulling off the mask of my continuous positive air pressure machine, I listen for its whirring to stop after ten seconds. It makes my nose hurt, and it’s digging valleys into my formerly apple cheeks. I strongly dislike it, but I stand it because it […]

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A Tale of Two Pandemics

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 12:30:00 +0000

Amid all the grim COVID-19 news in the spring, a quote from the French Prime Minister did make me smile. “Everyone in France is preoccupied by whether he can go on holiday this summer,” he said during a speech about how to handle tourism during the pandemic. One thing I’ve learned about the French after […]

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Death Loses, Love Wins

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 12:30:00 +0000

Teddy died in my arms. Teddy tipped his toy box over, pushing it back against the wall. Growling, he looked up for help as he scattered his toys. “Where is my bone? My bones are here, where are they?” Another scratch and growl. He tossed Catia’s turquoise turtle to the side, searching for his Old […]

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At All Costs

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:10:06 +0000

“We’re basically fucked, unless we un-fuck ourselves, systematically and collectively,” presidential hopeful Andrew Yang told Politico this summer. Currently polling at five percent, Yang has resonated with high school residents in Iowa; Black residents of Flint, Michigan; and Trump voters in South Carolina who recognize the loss of jobs to automation, growing insecurity, and related […]

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Lost Time

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 12:30:43 +0000

During an undergraduate English seminar, our professor got frank with us about her multiple miscarriages. It wasn’t completely out of sorts — the seminar was centered around the body and we had spent a lot of time with the concept of madness as elucidated by Elaine Showalter in The Female Malady. After more than 10 […]

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The Great Work Begins Again

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 16:51:58 +0000

“You can never make that crossing that she made, for such Great Voyages in this world do not any more exist. But every day of your lives the miles that voyage between that place and this one you cross. Every day. You understand me? In you that journey is.” — Angels in America, Millennium […]

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Lotsa Matzo In Kolkata

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 14:51:57 +0000

“Lift! Lift!” Such imperious syllables! Such indomitable ones! — at least when emanating from the throat of Flower Abraham Silliman as she hollers down the empty stairwell to the elevator operator in the lobby to come fetch her on the third floor. “Oh, he never listens. He can’t close his gate properly, or I don’t […]

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Our Sleep at the Onset

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 11:30:19 +0000

October 15th, 2017 12:50 a.m. During the dark morning hours, the time when my eyes are cloudy and my muscles ache, I worry about losing you in space. My gut lurches with that feeling people get when they’re holding a helium balloon and lose their grip — there’s no more control of that umbilical string, […]

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Dinnertime and its Discontents

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 11:30:47 +0000

I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, and my mother was a working woman who didn’t like to cook. Although she dutifully made dinner for us every night, these were perfunctory and repetitive meals: meatloaf made with Catalina salad dressing, spaghetti with tomato sauce and occasional meatballs (also made with Catalina salad dressing), roast […]

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Home Shopping Network

Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:10:34 +0000

When the stubborn, stabbing nerve pain in her abdomen wakes her in the middle of the night and she can no longer endure it, my 15-year-old daughter quietly calls to me and we descend the stairs together and curl up on the couch, under cover of darkness, and seek out the quiet reassurance of a […]

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