A Boston native, Mark has spent 25 years on the faculty of the Dallas Independent School District. A believer that what Hanna Arendt termed “the life of the mind” is the richest gift we give the young, Mark continues to find inspiration and joy in teaching. Mark has been published in The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, and various professional publications. His classes have been featured on KERA, the local public television station. Mark knows the MG journey is not solitary. Blessed with wonderful, loving family and friends, he hopes his writing will assist others as they navigate life with myasthenia gravis.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, king of Corinth, offends the gods and is sentenced to spend eternity rolling a stone up a mountain, only to have it roll back down just as it reaches the top. The punishment…
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“Useless, useless.” Those were the last words of President Abraham Lincoln’s murderer. After killing Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth fled Washington, D.C. A 12-day manhunt ensued. On April 26, 1865, federal troops cornered Booth in a northern Virginia barn. Military…
Can the French teach us something new today? According to Perspectives on History, “In French the word anniversaire means both ‘birthday’ and ‘anniversary,’ whereas in English the two concepts require separate words.” On birthdays, we remember when new…
As May ends, I, like many Americans, will pause on Memorial Day to remember and honor our sisters and brothers who gave, as Abraham Lincoln put it, “the last full measure of devotion” in service to our…
After years spent journeying around the world, Ulysses, the main character in Homer’s epic “Odyssey,” reaches the safety of home. Changed by the stimulation of dangerous adventures, he finds the tranquility unbearable. Having passed from youth to…
In 2020, a myasthenia gravis (MG) diagnosis completely changed my life. According to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, the prevalence of this disease in the U.S. is estimated at 14 to 20 per 100,000. That means…
A recent Washington Post article, written in the form of a multiple-choice quiz, challenges many of the assumptions made about people with “disabilities.” I put disabilities in quotations because my feelings about that term are complex and mostly…
Spring has arrived here in Texas. The trees outside my windows have lost their winter grayness and once again have turned my home into a treehouse. It’s the time of year when poets and songwriters tell us that new…
Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with prednisone. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. Living with myasthenia gravis (MG), or any rare disease,…
Years ago, a colleague shared her morning ritual with me. After waking, she thanked God for restful sleep, the excitement of a new day, and the caring people in her life. I adopted this ritual. Each morning, I’m reminded…
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt once said of his fellow Irishmen, “I think there’s something about the Irish experience — that we had to have a sense of humor or die.” The tragic nature of Irish history certainly…
The final lines of Voltaire’s “Candide” are some of my favorites in literature. As the story concludes, two of the main characters reflect on the “concatenation of events,” some of which were unpleasant and difficult, that ended…
“No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” — Heraclitus “It’s the paradox that the more you allow yourself to accept that change is inevitable,…
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