Me, My Brother, and MG — Allen Francis

Along with the certainty of death and taxes, life is mostly about mitigating stress and finding peace within the chaos. As we navigate life, uncertainty abounds, and some of us deal with more of it than others. I’m learning that young people say we huff “copium” when grappling with uncertainty,…

Is escapism a way to cope with reality or, as the word implies, an attempt to slowly and permanently escape from it? Does escapism have levels to it, and when is it dangerous? I’ll admit I’m an escapist. I’m a former pothead who lost way too many brain cells to…

Talk show host Conan O’Brien, among many others, once said, “When all else fails, there is always delusion.” As human beings, we want to believe what we want to believe, even when red flags and truth indicators warn us of the contrary. It can be comforting to embrace delusion when…

The writer and editor Christy Leigh Stewart, who lives with a terminal illness, once said, “Remission is not a cure. It’s an adjective of disability.” In other words, remission from a disease refers to a temporary reprieve from symptoms. There’s a lot I’m still learning about my twin brother,…

“Failure is not an option. Winning and learning are the options.” I don’t know who said that quote, though it’s been attributed (with slightly different grammar) to the neurologist and writer Debasish Mridha. But it often inspires me in life. There are so many things I’ve yet to do, but…

Yoga expert Vanda Scaravelli once said, “Movement is the song of the body.” Every person has a rhythm when they walk, move, or use mannerisms to communicate. Since my twin brother, Aaron, was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) in 1999 at 24 years old, his rhythms have looked a…

I started traveling as a backpacker when I was 19 years old, back in the 1990s. I spent a semester studying in London in 1997. As a naive kid from the South Bronx in New York City, I found it mind-blowing to be in countries where people spoke English but…

When I was a toddler, I tripped and fell into a wall. The impact caused a small wound on my forehead, and I cried out in pain. My twin brother, Aaron, who was napping at the time, woke up wailing, as if he were also in pain. My family told…

Do you ever use a phrase often without fully appreciating its meaning, especially its meaning to others? I’ve been thinking about the phrase “seeing double” for some time. My twin brother, Aaron, was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) in 1999, and he lives with a lot of its…

“To acknowledge another is to paint strokes of kindness on the canvas of existence.” I was unsuccessful in trying to find the source of this quote, but I like it a lot. As human beings, we want acknowledgment of our ambitions and achievements, as well as our struggles. I write…

“It’s the things that are left unsaid that take up the most space in our hearts.” I don’t know who wrote that, but it reminded me about how much has been left unsaid between my twin brother, Aaron, and me. Aaron’s myasthenia gravis (MG) diagnosis in 1999, at the…

In the Irish writer Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895), he writes that memory “is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Still, our memories can’t always be trusted; some scientific research even suggests that our memories can be unreliable. Emotions, voluntary…