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.
I grew up in Malden, Massachusetts, surrounded by history. According to the City of Malden’s website, “In 1640, the Puritans settled in Malden on land purchased in 1629 from the Native American…
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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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
“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…
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