Family

Dad doesn’t live in the best of times.

Dad coughed up a few small specks of blood one morning in late November. His…

We are COVID’s collateral damage. And we are legion.

My father’s hand was softer than I expected – tender in a way that told…

My 5-Year-Old was Suspended for Having a Tantrum

I am a concerned parent with a Kindergartener in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District.…

Children Are Not Pets: Why A Narrow Understanding of Family Fails Humanity

“Don’t choose pets over children.” In a recent weekly address at the Vatican, Pope Francis said that…

Grandmother

It’ll be the guilt that ultimately persuades you to visit Grandmother again in her one-bedroom…

Adoption Fables and the Right to Know

New Yorkers, Al and Agnes, had moved to an apartment in Sumter, South Carolina in…

Though the Future of The Build Back Better Plan is Uncertain, We Must Consider Why Four Weeks of Paid Family Leave Is Only a Starting Point

In the United States, we prefer short-term remedies over solutions. As a global leader, we…

I May Never Have a Good Answer to the Age-Old Question, ‘Where Are You From?’

“Moving around a lot is hard. Then you have 10 places to not call home.”…

Not to be Mentioned

I must have seen at least one expectant mother by the time I was eight,…

Making sense of life -and death; Or die trying, anyway!

We think of death as merely the opposite of life and in a fundamental and…

The Birthday Present

The Birthday Present May 8, 1971, was my eighth birthday. Birthdays were never a big…

Understanding Estrangement

A friend of mine had me over for dinner. What she shared with me broke…

Bisected

When they divorce, they bisect me. Weeks with Mom, weekends and certain holidays with Dad.…

Oh, Small Peanuts

The first time I saw Americans, I was fifteen years old in China.  My brother…

Homecooked: Persian Food Traditions For Health

American-born Iranians from my generation understand a few things as fact: We are expected to…