Searching Stories

My earliest experiences with waiting rooms were rather non-existent.  That is to say, at 3, my parents rushed me to the ER when my pinky finger was tightly lodged in the fold of a folding chair.  I remember the extraordinary pain and leaving with a splint on the finger.  If I waited, I know it… Read More

  Ah, waiting rooms. Those fluorescent-lit purgatories where childhood dreams went to die a slow, magazine-fueled death. Remember those giant, uncomfortable chairs swallowing you whole like a bad couch on “Laugh-In”? The only escape? Dog-eared copies of National Geographic filled with pictures of naked butts and confusing maps of exotic lands (where, presumably, dentists/ doctors… Read More

One hot summer day in July of 1978, I flew into Terre Haute, Indiana. I must confess that Terra Haute had a peculiar oder. The airport was full of larger-than-life photos of their hometown hero, Larry Bird, who grew up down the road in French Lick. I rented a car, got directions and began my… Read More

There has to be a better way to deliver medical care. ER waiting rooms are just another broken part of our system. Read More

Nigel understood that what he was doing in recounting his everyday activities and observations was subverting most people’s understanding of what was possible for a person with his condition. He mentioned this frequently throughout the narrative—though he never used a verb such as subvert. Read More

There was surely some apprehension people felt while waiting for medical care, but people often chatted with the front desk or each other and in a small town, it wasn’t unusual to run into someone you knew. Read More

When I met my friend Rose she’d been a window for several years.  She spoke lovingly about her late husband Bob and I soon learned he’d been her second husband. One day over lunch Rose and I were reminiscing about our past lives and she told me this story. She’d been very young when she… Read More

“Don’t Walk Under That Ladder”   Alright, ladies and gents, gather ’round. Today’s dissertation is on the peculiar phenomenon of superstition. You know, those little habits that make grown adults clutch a rabbit’s foot like it’s the winning lottery ticket, or avoid black cats like they’re Harvey Weinstein at a kindergarten graduation. Now, as a… Read More