Binder clips for America
Your February roundup
Hi friends,
I’m in North Carolina at the moment, visiting my mom who, unfortunately, broke her foot a few days before I arrived. I spent all day yesterday cooking for her and helping my stepfather transfer her from a hydraulic recliner to a wheelchair to take her to the bathroom and back.
This lifting and reaching define my days.
In the bathroom, an old, sea-green towel is tacked over the window because my mom thinks people are watching her while she pees. I hung the towel up for her last time I was here with two binder clips.
It’s hard for me to think when so much is wrong—and this feels true of America, too. I can only solve tiny problems for my mother, who is very unwell and who lives far away from me most of the time. I can’t fix her diabetes or her dementia or the broken bones in her foot or the paranoia that eats at her.
But I can help lift her up—physically and emotionally—and I can make her tamales and I can hold her hand in the car while we go to medical appoint…