Category: Writings

“Heaven’s not beyond the clouds, it’s just beyond the fear” from Belleau Wood by Garth Brooks I don’t think it’s possible to live in our culture for more than a few days without encountering at least one reference to the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. Just try it and you’ll see what I mean. I can’t personally think of… Read more →

Often in therapy we wrestle with intractable pain, that is, pain whose cause cannot be found or, if found, cannot be removed. Of course, this definition implies that to some extent the caregiver decides whether or not the patient’s pain is intractable. When faced with such a situation, protocols, goal-setting, team meetings, and sophisticated functional assessments may not be as… Read more →

Some men live with an invisible limp, stagger or drag a leg. Their sons are often angry. If a man, cautious, hides his limp somebody has to limp it! from “My Father’s Wedding” by Robert Bly “Do you think you might lose some sales?.” I say. “Yeah, I suppose. In fact, I was thinking that I might actually gain some… Read more →

Many of you reading this are familiar with the famous letter to the editor of the New York Sun published in the late 1800’s. It began: Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If it’s printed in the Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth. Is there… Read more →

When asked for a single bit of advise to give therapy students, I always answer in the same way: “Know the materials you’re working to change.” When I teach, I use this simple analogy to demonstrate the importance of this: I say, “If I were to point at a wall and ask you to make a hole, what would you… Read more →

He who wishes to live long must serve. Herman Hesse In his novel, The Journey to the East, Herman Hesse tells of an expedition undertaken by a secret society called the League. The narrator reveals that “Our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something geographical, but it was the home… Read more →

My father began buying alcohol and tobacco at the age of five. What I’ve just said is true, and I would like you at this point to do me a small favor – stop and think about what you’re beginning to assume about his life, and perhaps about the people in it. Think of the possible consequences of his actions,… Read more →

For a couple of years in my youth I was a boy scout, and I remember that when the scout leader held up three fingers, we were to follow suit and grow quiet. Last night I attended a cub scout meeting and watched the pack leader hold aloft the two-fingered cub scout sign in an effort to settle down the… Read more →

In Cincinnati it’s a bright, sunny day as I walk along the tarmac to the small jet that will take me north to Cleveland. My window is no larger than a piece of writing paper, and as we sit waiting to take off, I see nothing more than the asphalt and concrete. Everything is straight lines and corners, and I’m… Read more →

To see what is general in what is particular and what is permanent in what is transitory is the aim of scientific thought. Alfred North Whitehead Five years ago I wrote the following in an essay entitled The Piano Lesson, “When I note unconsciously motivated movement seemingly unrelated to disability and wonder aloud what it may signify, I invite the… Read more →