Cancer is no flu. It can kill you. No matter how obvious that sounds, the moment it becomes about you or someone dear to you, the trivial truth becomes taboo. Why though? There’s nothing unnatural or inherently evil about cancer and death. Yes, it tends to derail your...
I started collecting my ideas when I was about fourteen. Back then, I had enough energy to think that if I didn’t write something down, I might forget it. This was important because The Plan was to make everything happen. So, I collected ideas for books,...
I realize that some of my essays have gotten pretty grim as of late. My parents, who occasionally read my blog, are probably terrified to see me exploring such difficult themes. But what—as I increasingly find myself asking—am I supposed to write about, if not cancer...
In real life, people listen to you talk because they like you—or because you tell great stories, but that’s kind of one and the same. When you have the ear of someone who enjoys your company, they nod a lot, ask all the right questions, and keep giving you signals...
The last few weeks of November have left me humbled. For the whole of October, I would get up at five, list the things I wanted to do that day, and get on with it; write my novel, run my business, organize weekly writing meetups, and care for my wife, who was then...
They say a writer is someone on whom nothing is lost. No wonder. Writing is paying attention. To people mostly, but also the world at large and your own inner life. I recently discovered that photography could be all those things too. Maybe more. It calms me to take...
The problems I have in life cannot be solved with money. The cost of Edyta’s cancer treatment is covered by German public healthcare. She’s staying in Charité, one of the world’s top hospitals, her ward under the direction of the world’s leading experts in treating...
