Category Archives: Cure

Social Influence

Last Friday, Scarlett and I went to visit Rob’s office. He took a new job in April, at a start-up called Linqia in San Francisco’s Union Square neighborhood. We hadn’t seen his workspace before, and we were excited to meet his coworkers and see where he spends his days.

The main reason we were there was that Rob was rolling out the #WhatWouldYouGive campaign and asking his company to get involved. We gathered in the conference room, where Rob talked to a large group about the genesis of our fundraiser, and how he hoped to impact awareness through a “day of silence” at Linqia.

While he spoke, Scarlett held court in the corner, crawled around under the conference room table, pulled apart the protective covering on a few chairs, and ate an alarming amount of  bread and cookies. Read More>

|Categories: Cure, Life, Relationships, Research | Tags: , , | Permalink

Where is my mind?

I’m not feeling well today. I want to write an entire blog using only Emoji’s: a raincloud, a cough machine, a devilish dog, a child sneaking candy, a burgundy nurse with arm muscles like Popeye.

It’s just a cold, but another cold is not what I needed right now. Yesterday was the last day of the official #WhatWouldYouGive challenges, but it looks like the campaign will continue as more team members give up abilities into August. We might extend the whole thing even longer, because why not? We haven’t cured ALS yet, despite all the talk you hear about breakthroughs.

Breakthrough is a funny word. And every time I read an article using that word it reminds me of when I worked in book publishing and we called every book groundbreaking. They weren’t. But you can say whatever you want when you’re trying to get people’s money and attention. Read More>

|Categories: Cure, Drugs, Life, Parenting, Relationships, Research, Venting | Tags: , , , , | Permalink

Summertime

Scarlett is staying home from camp today. When I asked her to get dressed, she ran to her bedroom and got back under the covers. She was wearing my nephew’s underpants, and two of his T-shirts, and seemed far too comfy to get moving. I mostly understood. It’s been a busy summer, and not at all the kind I used to have when I was a kid growing up in Oak Park, Illinois.

In those days, we didn’t do camp. We played outside, often right in the middle of the street or the alley, we went to the pool or danced in the sprinkler. Basically we entertained ourselves along with the other neighborhood children for three months, and sometimes we went on vacation to a Holiday Inn in Indiana or Ohio, or to my uncle’s cabin in Wisconsin where we swam in the lake and hooked wiggling minnows and leeches onto fishing rods that we cast out into the shining water over and over.

Scarlett’s summers are different. Read More>

|Categories: Cure, Drugs, Life, Parenting, Relationships, Research | Tags: , , | Permalink