Inconsequential News. 🗞️
Guys, I am excited to share inconsequential news with you: Something I wrote was published in the New York Times! Michelle Cottle wrote a poignant essay, ‘We...
Links Around the World Wide Web. 🌎
Some interesting items for your consideration: Why are people poor? (short video) The intelligent and incisive Jamelle Bouie comments on the recent immoral...
Approach, Don’t Avoid. 🙈
I don’t think the crisis center had been open for even one week. There were dozens of staff and fewer than five patients. Most of the staff were young,...
Who Gets to Be Sad? 😢
For those of you who don’t follow baseball, the Seattle Mariners were in the running to go to the finals in baseball, called the World Series. (So American,...
Neither Sex Nor Drugs. 👠
While it was happening I recognized that it didn’t look great. My outreach colleague was driving and slowed down. After rolling down my passenger side...
The Man in the Tiny Village. 🏘️
Almost 30 minutes had passed, but The Man was still standing outside in the grey morning chill. His soiled tee shirt and loose pants hung from his tall...
How About Those Mariners? ⚾️
In January of 2024, I made a deliberate choice to be a Baseball Fan. There were two reasons behind this: My spouse is a lifelong baseball fan and I wanted to...
Who is Actually Unsafe? 🤔
Before she and I reached the gate in the chain-link fence, a man approached us from the opposite direction. A hoodie shaded his face and his hands were in...
Words Have Meaning. 🪄
Shortly after I learned of the murder of Charlie Kirk, I thought of the manifesto from People Reluctant To Kill for an Abstraction. George Saunders wrote it...
Opening Doors. 🚪
For our first appointment, she didn’t come downstairs. The building staff, who described her as a high-priority patient, had predicted this. After I knocked...
Encouragement. 🌟
Some pieces that have brought me encouragement and made me think in the past few weeks: The Power We Use and the Power We Give. (Philip Bump) "Your...
Homelessness is Not a Crime.
Last week, the current Presidential administration released an executive order with a noble title, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” Here is...
Loud Music Is Disorder. What About Memecoins? 🤑
I read this provocative essay about “disorder” when it was first published in September 2024. I found myself alternating between nodding and frowning. It’s...
Why I Never Went Camping. 🏕️
I have never gone camping. During my short stint in Girl Scouts[1], my parents never allowed me to go on troop camping trips. During our family vacations to...
Learning from Those Who Hear Voices.
When we learn that someone hears voices, we may assume that this person must be “crazy.” Some people who hear voices have a diagnosis of schizophrenia....
Your Six-Foot Radius.
I don't think I was that mouthy during my medical training. Some East Asian women are shy, deferential, and taciturn. It’s no wonder some people were...
A Pope's Death.
If he views attention as a zero-sum game, then, today, he lost. To a dead man, no less—a man who did not even rule over a state. He was just a pope. But he’s...
Geriatric Homelessness and Medicaid.
I submitted the following as an op-ed essay, though neither local publication accepted it. (I understand: Many people have many opinions about all the...
Standing Up.
Five years ago I was working as the medical director at the largest homelessness services agency in Seattle. My dad, who skimmed headlines from major...
The Word “Mental” in Project 2025. (iii)
Just to formally close out the series on Project 2025 and its intersections with mental health, let me comment on the third instance where “mental” shows up...