What if Terri could talk?What if, for five minutes, Terri Schiavo came out of the vegetative state she has lived in for 13 years, and said what she was thinking, not what others were thinking for her?Would she smile at her husband, Michael, and say, "Thank you for defending my wish to die. Let me go. It's what I want."Or would she scowl and say, "How could you? I'm your wife. You'd let me die? What if they find a cure?"
Everybody leaves. Larry Brown knows that. He knows it from the time he was 7 years old and his father didn't come home from work. The old man, it turns out, had died in a hospital from an aneurysm; Larry and his older brother were at the movies. Larry's mother was so distraught, instead of telling him, she sent young Larry away with relatives for nearly a month. He missed the funeral. He missed the grieving. He was told his father was on his job as a traveling salesman. "But I knew," Brown says now.
Afriend of mine does this Simon and Garfunkel impersonation. He mimics the soft-spoken Garfunkel, leaning into the microphone, telling the audience, "We'd like to slow things down now . . . even more."It's a common joke, especially among young people. You tell anyone under 30 that you're going to see Simon and Garfunkel on their reunion tour -- that you're excited about it! -- and they snicker as if you can't wait for your new pair of Depends."Wow, Simon and Garfunkel," they deadpan. "You're gonna rock."
Joey Harrington was moving backward, much like his team, after another Dallas Cowboy intercepted another one of his passes. The Cowboy, Mario Edwards, was charging hard and Harrington, near the goal line, dropped to make a tackle. Forget it. Edwards burst through his grasp and was gone. Just like the game.And just like the season.
For almost as long as there has been war, there have been letters home. The image is usually of a weary soldier, huddled over a light, scribbling words to his family or fiancee, trying to be brave.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
