Last weekend my son sustained head trauma. Someone punched him so hard it broke his mastoid and, as he fell he hit and cut his head. For two days there was blood coming from his ear, he couldn't keep a glass of water down, and he was so dizzy he couldn't get himself off the bed until he was so … [Read more...] about Dealing With The Trauma Of A Trauma
Loss
Talking About Statues
"What do you think of the statues being taken down?" I ask my children while we're doing the washing up. "I don't know why we have statues at all," says my daughter. "It's hard to know where to draw the line. I guess nobody is all bad," I say. My son is straight back with, "Yeah, maybe … [Read more...] about Talking About Statues
How To Throw Things Out
I'm sorting through a basket of old cables, guitar strings and microphones looking for a jack adaptor so that my daughter can play the piano through headphones. "You don't have to play quietly, you're not disturbing me," I tell her. She doesn't hear me because she is on her phone and has her … [Read more...] about How To Throw Things Out
Why We Need To Talk About Death
I remember once my daughter coming home from a day at school where they had been focusing on death. "That's an interesting and important subject to talk about. What did they get you to do?" I asked. "Nothing much. They didn't talk to us about it. We spent most of the day designing a poster … [Read more...] about Why We Need To Talk About Death
How To Deal With Obsolescence
It's time to take down the Christmas decorations, a job which always seems to take no time at all, shuffling the festivities out of the door as quickly as possible, their obsolescence unquestioned and fitting. My phone constantly has a notification popping up which tells me I have "insufficient … [Read more...] about How To Deal With Obsolescence