by Jule Kucera | Nov 12, 2023 | Blog
[Note: This post from 2021 is repeated because it’s still relevant.] Thanksgiving? Or Takesgiving? It depends on your perspective. It depends on the story you tell yourself. If you tell yourself that Manifest Destiny is your divine right, that we are bringing...
by Jule Kucera | Nov 5, 2023 | Blog
My mom has become convinced that cherry tomatoes are not real tomatoes, but some genetically manufactured fake. I told her they’re just a different variety. She blew me off. I didn’t understand it. I’ve seen Mom eat cherry tomatoes. In our packaged dinners with their...
by Jule Kucera | Oct 29, 2023 | Blog
My brother Eric said he wanted to surprise his birth mother. He planned to knock on her door five to ten minutes after I got there. I didn’t know if a surprise visit was a good idea for a mother 82 years old, but it’s his birth mother and his decision. Eric and I...
by Jule Kucera | Oct 22, 2023 | Blog
On Sunday (today, if you are reading this on Sunday), I will visit my brother Eric’s birth mother. There are unnamable feelings, like an oil slick on water, or a Labrador of dog hair in my chest. I try to tease them apart, to understand, make sense. The only feeling I...
by Jule Kucera | Oct 15, 2023 | Blog
There are things I know now that I didn’t know back when I was 15, when my father demanded that I justify my existence. For cleansing or healing or maybe just to get it out of my system, I imagined What If? What if I knew back then what I know now? What would I have...
by Jule Kucera | Oct 8, 2023 | Blog
“Your lungs are your Achilles heel. Or one of them.” The message was from a friend. We had been discussing my current bronchitis, history of asthma, two bouts of Covid. I give myself credit for surviving a Covid close call. It happened while staying with a friend in...
