Parenting a Bone Marrow: Suffer, Suffer, Suffer, Suffer, Relief
I walked in on Bone Marrow as she was mainlining pollen. Talk about having your tongue tied. I entered the balcony of our apartment and there was my teenage bone marrow “daughter” injecting into herself—I mean, injecting into us—the pollen she had plucked from the air and collected in a small mountain on the bistro table.Bone Marrow saw my shock and said, “It’s maple, our worst allergen,” as if that statement was enough for me to understand her reasoning.Eventually, words came to my mind, and I said, “You can’t just shock our body into building immunity like this without medical supervision!”“Hey, you...
Source: cancerslayerblog - April 24, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer-free anniversary life lessons Source Type: blogs
If Everything Took 15 Minutes: Considering Time
I always thought about time —How long until we get there, Mommy and Daddy? . . .Fifteen minutes, Benjamin . . .no matter the destination, my parents always proclaimed the car ride would take 15 minutes —but time assumed new significance when I was 16.I remember, then, scanning the ceiling and thinking about time. Unlike my bedroom nowadays, in which even my computer ’s LED light is covered with a blackout sticker, my hospital room dazzled with light streaming in through the door’s small window and from the IV machine’s red digits telling me fluid was entering my bloodstream at 150 milliliters an hour. The light p...
Source: cancerslayerblog - March 21, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: life lessons MFA Source Type: blogs
Where Common Decency Crumbled, and It ’s Not Where You Think
As published on The Huffington PostI grabbed a kosher beer from the refrigerator and then found my chair in the back of the hushed room just before the first presidential debate. Now was not the time to ask what made a kosher beer kosher. Now was not the time to say anything except, “I’m with her.”My very Jewish, very liberal friend, Meira, had invited me to her debate-watching party along with what looked like 15 other white, Jewish, liberal, white collar young professionals I ’d never met before. I scanned the room in search of someone, anyone else holding a kosher beer. There were none. Instead, I saw plates top...
Source: cancerslayerblog - January 20, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: politics Source Type: blogs
The Literary Citizen
I just got home from my third residency in theStonecoast creative writing program where I learned writing and bonded with friends (over writing) every moment, from waking until slumber, and I realize now I must respond to texts from a week ago. Halfway through today I will cease being productive and slow my brain. In that calm, I hope my synapses strengthen their hold on the lessons I learned. Here are some of those lessons (in my own words) which you can use in your writing and in your life. These are courtesy of two Stonecoast faculty members,Justin Tussing andSuzanne Strempek Shea, who don ’t just mentor me, but reall...
Source: cancerslayerblog - January 16, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: MFA writing/speaking Source Type: blogs
In a Word
My first published piece of creative nonfiction literature also happens to be quasi poetry. Here is me, in a word.As published in aptFavorite drug: OxyContin. Second favorite drug: Cinnabon. Most painful drug: chemotherapy. Second most painful drug: Cinnabon. Drug I consumed most: Benadryl. Person who has consumed most Benadryl in world history: me. Number of uses of Benadryl: infinite.Favorite food: pizza. Favorite topping: pepperoni. Practice never followed: kosher. Feeling experienced during bar mitzvah: nervousness. Substance wished knew about during bar mitzvah: whiskey.High school sport: tennis. Sport too short to su...
Source: cancerslayerblog - January 2, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: writing/speaking Source Type: blogs
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My first published piece of creative nonfiction literature also happens to be quasi poetry. Here is me, in a word.As published in aptFavorite drug: OxyContin. Second favorite drug: Cinnabon. Most painful drug: chemotherapy. Second most painful drug: Cinnabon. Drug I consumed most: Benadryl. Person who has consumed most Benadryl in world history: me. Number of uses of Benadryl: infinite.Favorite food: pizza. Favorite topping: pepperoni. Practice never followed: kosher. Feeling experienced during bar mitzvah: nervousness. Substance wished knew about during bar mitzvah: whiskey.High school sport: tennis. Sport too short to su...
Source: cancerslayerblog - January 2, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: writing/speaking Source Type: blogs
My Curated 2016 Review
There ’s too much content: you post too many tweets that don’t offer value to anyone whom you don’t call “Mom,” and you post too many photos of your baby sitting on a carpet. I’d like to create a movement for 2017. In this movement all adopters will be thoughtful in what they share with the wo rld. We will share less, though what we share will have more impact on others.Be prepared, though, to become less popular, because social media rewards those who post the most. You will not gain as many followers as you did in 2016. People may forget you exist (until you post that killer photo of your baby sitting on the ...
Source: cancerslayerblog - January 1, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: holidays Source Type: blogs
I Like Literary Fiction and I Cannot Lie
This semester I read literary fiction for the first time in my life. In August the following idea entered my mind, in September I acknowledged it, and in October I asked others about this idea to see if I was being absurd or dramatic; to see if I was crazy:Is it possible to learn more about life by reading literary fiction than through actual experiences?Let me explain before you go looking to buy me a straight jacket for Hanukkah. We move through life with just one point of view —our own. We can try putting ourselves in others' shoes and seeing the world from their perspective, but that's nothing more than an exercise i...
Source: cancerslayerblog - December 17, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: life lessons writing/speaking Source Type: blogs
I Quit TV But I Can ’t Quit Watching Trump
As published in The Huffington PostEpisodes ofIt ’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia from 2014 remain un-viewed on my DVR, and I didn ’t know the Oprah Winfrey Network existed until yesterday. I have quit TV, or to be specific, I have quit watching programming with story arcs.I just don ’t have the tolerance to commit to shows any more. I prefer watching movies because the story ends in two instead of 100 hours. I would rather research the health benefits of a squat toilet than starting a new series. But sometimes being out of touch with pop culture poses social challenges.Last month, two coworkers and I were still in th...
Source: cancerslayerblog - November 8, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: politics pop culture Source Type: blogs
My 9/11 Shows That Cancer Patients Aren't Saints
I finally got a hold of my mom on the telephone on Sept. 11, 2001, just hours before I was supposed to receive my penultimate dose ofradiation to treat my bone cancer. After nearly a year of treatment, I only had two days left. My mom said the National Institutes of Health was closed and I couldn't get radiation that afternoon. The NIH would probably be closed the next day, too, my mom said. Instead of feeling sadness for my country and for the thousands of Americans who were injured or killed, I felt anger that I would have to wait to call myself "cancer-free."Cancer patients are often portrayed in the media and on televi...
Source: cancerslayerblog - September 12, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: fear and rage Source Type: blogs
Road Trippin' from D.C. to Portland, Maine, in a Nissan Maxima
In July I went on a road trip from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Maine, where I participated in my second residency in my fiction-writing program. Of course I made a video of my adventures. Enjoy. You canwatch it on YouTube or directly below, if your web browser allows.AppearancesI delivered a public speaking workshop to leaders from the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority at George Mason University on August 21. Want to compete against me to see who can speak with the fewest "ums," "uhs," and "likes"?Book me for your next conference or event for a showdown.See me inThe Story Collider's next D.C. show on Thursday, September 29, at ...
Source: cancerslayerblog - September 1, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: my videos travels Source Type: blogs
My Katie Campbell Story
We look down at the iPhone directing us from the Maryland home of Katie “Crush” Campbell and her husband to our writing getaway in West Virginia and the battery is almost dead and it isn’t charging even though the charge plug is snug inside and the plug’s indicator light is bright blue. “This always happens,” Crush says in the way I imagine a monk says anyth ing.“Do you know how to get to the cabin?” I say.“Not exactly.”Crush stops the navigation to save her phone ’s battery for when we get closer and possibly really need it. Thankfully between us we have three phones. I look at my two smartphones. On...
Source: cancerslayerblog - August 23, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: a day in my life life lessons Source Type: blogs
A Book Party: All It Takes Is One
Reclined on the patio chair with my feet propped on the other chair, hearing screams from the drunk man who lives in the tunnel down the street and the lyricless music playing through the Bluetooth speaker on the bistro table next to me, my attention occasionally altered by a plane taking off at the airport one mile away or the flickering television through the window of an apartment dweller across the way, I readOlive Kitteridge on my Kindle Touch going on three hours now. It is a Friday night and I am across the river from the most powerful city in the world and I am not texting friends "What are you up to tonight?" or f...
Source: cancerslayerblog - August 20, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: living habits Source Type: blogs
I ’m Proud to Be Like My Dad
Two months ago I shared aninterview I conducted with my dad for Huffington Post's new blog series "Talk To Me." Huffington Post promoted it on its Facebook Page and then later asked me to write a story and re-post the video on its site.As published in The Huffington PostI was 12 when my dad and I took our first trip as just the two of us. As he drove his brand-new minivan while listening to country music, I tested all the buttons and levers and seats and I counted the total number of cars he passed: two. My dad may have been the only country music-loving, minivan- and slow-driving Jew from Brooklyn, but damn could he tell ...
Source: cancerslayerblog - August 2, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: family Source Type: blogs
Lessons From My MFA Creative Writing Program
In the moments after I listen to each new episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, I want to redesign my entire life. Especially after The Terminator was a show guest. In other words, I'm easily inspired. After completing my second residency in my master's of fine arts in creative writing program, I felt like I absorbed the one-liners from all of Arnold's movies since Conan.I can't properly show you how meaningful this Stonecoast experience has been for me, but I can share some of the insights I transcribed. I think many of these are true in writing and storytelling and life.Author Rick Bass says:So much of writing is physical. Yo...
Source: cancerslayerblog - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: MFA writing/speaking Source Type: blogs
