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Files
I am an adult survivor of childhood (teenage actually) sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic clergy member, a priest to use his more familiar description. Thanks to two years of very intense and emotionally painful EMDR Therapy with a very skilled therapist who specializes in post-traumatic stress, serving both civilians and combat veterans of the…
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Fruits and Nuts
The other day, someone asked me how I come up with the topics I write about. I answered honestly: I don’t know. Obviously, current events are a source. But ultimately, a topic must be interesting to me. I do this (blogging) for fun, the way some people play golf or collect stamps. If it was…
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From Madeleines to Saltines
My first encounter with Marcel Proust was not academic, or even literary. As a teenager, I was obsessed with Monty Python, which I’d come to know through a dedicated, bordering on religious, listening to Dr. Demento every Sunday night on 94.7 KMET (“the Mighty Met”), at the time the most listened-to Sunday evening radio program…
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Loud Joyce
This week marks ten years since I have lived at Stonewall Gardens Assisted Living in Palm Springs. It has, on the whole, been a good experience. There have been ups and downs, but that’s life, isn’t it? If I were writing a Yelp review, I’d give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, holding back that…
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Different from the Others
I know how lucky I am to have been born when I was. I know that where I live – Southern California in general and Palm Springs specifically – gives me advantages others lack or can only dream of. Even now, with Trump and Company leading an all-out war against diversity, looking to rollback decades…
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Enough!
Ah, November. It is the beginning of so much in the Coachella Valley. It marks the official start of what we call “the season” here in Palm Springs – a period of six months, more or less, of heaven on earth: highs in the mid-70s, rarely a cloud in the sky, maybe a raindrop or…
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Spooky
It’s here… tomorrow night. Halloween. The weirdest holiday on the calendar, after Labor Day, when we celebrate work by – wait for it – not working. This holiday focuses on ghosts and disembodied spirits of various and sundry types. And we combine that with kids going door-to-door asking for candy wearing costumes, while some people…
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Carded by Google
After writing the other day about how I’m getting older, it would seem I had it all wrong. I’m Benjamin Button-ing before my very eyes! It started innocently enough. Google frightens me. That said, I do use it, first and foremost as a search tool that dramatically speeds up my research into the various things…
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Happy Birthday Gordon!
Today is Gordon’s designated birthday – the one used for his official paperwork with the city of Palm Springs (dog license, vaccination record, etc.) and by his vet. It is “designated” because it marks the day, three years ago, that the Friends of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter rescued him from being put down at…
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Golden Years
In a few months, I will turn 60. 60 !! It is already weighing on me. I breezed through the other life milestones without giving their significance much thought because my mind was elsewhere. At 40 I was too busy having the mid-life crisis that landed me in a wheelchair to have a proper mid-life…
Your mileage may vary.