essays

My Covid experience and the cycle of life and death

Three days after my coworker reported suffering from a “weird cold,” I sat minimally elevated in my bed, staring down a positive Covid test. For three days after that, I remained bedridden, my slightly elevated state pushed horizontal by symptoms such as fever, chills, fatigue, a cough, nasal congestion, body aches, and more. All the… Continue reading My Covid experience and the cycle of life and death

essays

The west need not be saved

In 2013, the summer after graduating from college, I read the Tao Te Ching. In the edition I picked up from the library, the preface began by making a startling claim: between eastern and western philosophies, the latter was simply wrong.  As someone who’d minored in philosophy while in college, this claim rattled my presuppositions,… Continue reading The west need not be saved

essays

Trapped at stage orange: spiral dynamics and the fate of Atlantis

Over this past week, I was tested four separate times for Covid. The first test, an at-home test, occurred because I was feeling ill and work at a school; the second test occurred because the first test's results would not return for nearly a week, and the school’s principal wanted me to resume teaching. Finally,… Continue reading Trapped at stage orange: spiral dynamics and the fate of Atlantis

essays

Masks, memory, and the long road to justice

Going to a party the other night for the first time in more than a year, I was surprised at the intensity of the experience, a veritable surge of content after a valley of silence. Prior to leaving my house for the party, I struggled with anxiety; what would it feel like to encounter so… Continue reading Masks, memory, and the long road to justice

essays

An unlikely union

My whole life I’ve been distrustful of doctors. I don’t know what it is. The coldness of the waiting room, the feeling of paranoia amongst the people waiting. The feeling of being analyzed when seen by the doctor, as though the exchange is a one-way street. In me, the childhood fear of needles has never… Continue reading An unlikely union