Tag Archive for mental health

All We Need

Happy Birthday Beatles!

All we need is good health and good relationships. At the end of the day, all we really need from life is good health and healthy relationships with people we love. Good health is not a given for humans. To be healthy, we need good nutrition, we need safe and comfortable housing, we need access to healthcare, we need a stable and peaceful environment (mental health is part of health). All of that requires that we have financial and social support structures. None of this happens in isolation — we can’t all grow our own food and perform self-surgery while building comfortable environments to live in. All those needs require strong social ties inside a stable and supportive community. As they say: people need people. We are not solitary animals. And even with all those needs met, we have to have strong, loving attachments to those we are particularly close to in addition to a stable, supportive community to live in. Human societies share responsibilities. And the more complex our needs and desires become, the more diverse expertise and cooperation are needed. It takes decades to become an experienced doctor. And while those individuals are in training, society needs to…

Stories in the Age of Pandemic

Mistress of the Mirror

I moved from New York to California in 1989, the year the Bay Bridge collapsed due to a powerful earthquake, the year all those people died, the year I was run over by a car while crossing the street, the year I was supposed to have gotten married but learned that my fiancé was cheating on me with my best friend. Those were just the highlights, there was much more insane stuff that happened but if I wrote it down, no one would believe it to be a true story. My life, that year, was an overwrought soap opera. It was my year of emotional pandemic. But it got better. I learned to walk again. I got my doctorate. I met the love of my life. I had two amazing kids. And now I even get to imagine whole universes in my head. I live a pretty amazing life. I’m very lucky. But it was a journey. 1989 was my year of living dangerously — I read every doomsday apocalyptic dystopian novel I could get my hands on. Literature saved my life, literally! If not for the ability to escape into another world, into another life, I would have not…