Emily Rapp is a writer and mother living in New Mexico. She has written a remarkably beautiful piece about her son, Ronan, and his battle with Tay-Sachs disease. (My smart friend Janice, a new mom herself, pointed me toward this).
Rapp’s honesty here is painful but exquisite, and I urge you to read this. It may make you cry, but it will also make you think, and appreciate all that you have in life.
OK, I’m getting down from the high horse. But this is a beautiful essay.
**So this amused me. I’m walking back to my car from my grad school class Tuesday night and my cell phone dings with a text message, from a number I don’t recognize but from my same cell area code.
“On my way up need that 40 leavin knw.”
Now, most people would’ve just left it alone. Simple wrong number. But I’m not most people. I wrote back “???” (Witty comeback, eh?)
My new friend replied “On my way up leave $ under matt beup in 5.”
Besides being a world-class speller, seems my texting buddy still doesn’t realize he’s got the wrong person on the other end.
So I try one more time. “Sorry, think you have the wrong number.”
But my spelling-challenged friend would not be denied! His reply?
“Ya what ev see u in a min dnt make me freak out already in a shitty mood.”
Didn’t have the heart to tell this guy he was wrong again. I mean, I’m sure he figured it out by now.
But it’s been 125 minutes since his last text, so now he’s a liar, too. He didn’t see me in a minute.
**My favorite time in history has always been the American civil rights movement. I was fairly obsessed with the 1960s in college, and I love, love, love reading about the backstories and incredible drama that marked those years.
So I was thrilled to stumble upon this on Twitter; the backstory of the remarkable relationship between Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan. Eckford is the African-American girl, above, who was one of the “Little Rock 9”, the courageous kids who integrated the Little Rock, Ark. high school in 1957.
Bryan is the girl screaming at Eckford in the photo. So much hate and anger is wrapped up in her face; Bryan became a symbol of white bigotry because of this picture.
Their lives since then have been not at all what you’d expect, as this excerpt from a book by David Margolick reveals. Really a fascinating read if you have a minute.
Wide World of Stuff 
That was very interesting. I always wondered about those people in the photo and films I have seen. I wonder what they think today when they see themselves. Like Elizabeth I would find it difficult to totally forgive those people.